When We Were Young
by DreamWeaver619
Summary: An AUish fic dealing with the main G1 Decepticons. Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave are young Decepticons attending the Decepticon War Academy. CH 22 Off to the Game
1. Prologue

Blackness.

That was all that surrounded Heavens War. 

No sound.

No sight.

No feeling.

Nothing.

A vision.

Then a bright sliver of light a appeared. It grew wider. 

Light hidden behind doors that were now opening.

"The doors are opening! The keepers are ready? Who was chosen?" Heavens War whispered to himself.

Then something appeared in the light. _Someone_ more like it. The Heart of Cybertron was in the figures hand.

Silver.

A body of silver. 

Optics. The figure had optics that said he alone was leader, optics that dared and condemned anyone who dared to challenge him. Undoubting, unafraid optics.

But who?

The light was to bright to see the details, to place a face.

Then the light engulfed everything.

Heavens War awoke with a start in his recharge bed. His body was trembling, and his fuel pump was racing at million miles per hour. Laserbeak must have sensed his alarm , for she landed next him and looked up at him with worried optics.

" Oh don't worry girl, I'm allright, you go back to recharge stasis."

Laserbeak looked reluctant, but did as she was told.

Heavens War looked up at the ceiling, slowly reflecting on the vision he had.

The doors will open.

One will be chosen, but who?

Suddenly his televiewing screen came on. It showed a sports broadcast from the Gladiator Pits. 

"...................And still undefeated Champion, MEGATRON!"

Heavens War's jaw dropped when he the picture of the young silver gladiator.

*****************************************************************

"Are you sure?" Mindwipe queried with great interest.

"Positive, it was too foggy to be real and too clear to be a dream. It was a vision." Heavens War spoke calmly. "but it was different, this time."

"Oh?"

"When visions are sent to me, it is usually very clear what I must do or who I must find to pull them into place. But this one was not so much." Heavens War narrowed his visor at nothing in particular across the room.

"Hmmmm," Mindwipe pondered this carefully, "perhaps that is sign in itself, for you to not interfere,because the future is unclear."

"Maybe.......But then why would Primus show it to me at all?" Heavens War said a lot louder that he had intended.

"I...."Mindwipe stumbled for an answer.

"Unless...." Heavens War suddenly whisoered, "The reason is different. Maybe the vision is clouded, because I am nearing the end. Maybe it is because I will function only until the new one is chosen, and when you fully realize your power of  "sight"."

"You? Cease functioning? Impossible!" Mindwipe almost chuckled. "The only person who would be strong enough to kill you is Straxus, but you are still too valuable to him. And do not tell me you are going to die of old age, why I am older then you are."

"Yes you are indeed older than Heveans War." Heavens War sighed and stood up. "I think Mindwipe should like to do something different to today, before the academy applications are sent to me tomorrow. I Think I should like to go to the Gladiator pits and watch the games." 

************************************************************

Heavens War had only been to the Gladiator pits just a few times. The duel to the death for the sole purpose of entertainment didn't interest him much. But he was very interested in seeing the youth he had seen on the view screen in action.

He watched the youth in the arena take down seven other opponents, but it wasn't simple butchery, the youth knew how to put on a show as well get the job done. He brought the crowd entertaining death and they loved him for it.

"And this battle's winner once again is, MEGATRON!" The announcer called out.

Heavens War watched Megatron raise his scimitar in the air. He was literally calling the crowd to worship him, and they willingly did. While the crowd  continued their praise, Heavens War  slipped down to the area under the arena where the gladiators trained and waited for their turn. He heard from the reports Megatron was owned by transformer called Proximo.

"Greetings Proximo." Heavens War strode up to the gladiator owner.

"Why Headmaster Heavens War, to what do we owe the honor?" Proximo greeted him in a half sarcastic tone.

"Yes. I have been watching your gladiator, Megatron, for quite sometime now, and I am here to offer him a place as student at the Decepticon War Academy." Heavens War stated.

A look of shock crossed Proximo's face, then he burst out laughing. "Just the other day Megatron told me if there was ever gladiator to get into the academy he would be the one."

"So you will let him go?"It was technically a question, but the Headmaster had that certain look in his optics that Megatron was going to the Academy whether Proximo wanted it or not, and Proximo knew the Headmaster had the power to do it.

"Of course, it will heighten my reputation of sposoring good fighters. However there is something I need him to do first and then he will."

"Very well." The Headmaster began to depart. "Oh and Proximo, don't tell him I saught him out."

"As you wish."

And with a nod the Headmaster exited the Gladiator pits.

The door would open.............

End of the Prologue.

************************************

The reason why I put this in is the story has changed somuch since I first started, one of these changes, is the Headmaster of the Decepticon War Academy has become more of a major character in the story than I had originally planned. 


	2. Acceptance

_Warning to Autobot fans, this is a story about the young Decepticon main characters, so if you 're looking for Optimus Prime and the other Autobots, I'm afraid you're out of luck. But give this story a try you might like it anyway._

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

**When We Were Young**

Chapter 1 - Introductions

"So your name is Megatron, is it not?"

The Headmaster of the Decepticon War Academy stared at the young silver Transformer from behind his desk.

"Yes Sir, that is correct."

The young Decepticon answered timidly. Never in his whole life was he ever as frightened as he was now. Felt as if his leg gears would give out from under him.

"You are a very lucky that the illustrious Proximo has chosen to sponsor you, a low, teenage gladiator. Apparently he sees something in you worthy enough to pay for the cost of your schooling at this Academy. However, that's neither here nor there, the point is, if you fail to meet the expectations of this academy, you will be thrown out faster than you get in, understand?"

Megatron cast his optics to the ground. "Yes, Sir."

"Good, now your are going to take a long test," the Headmaster said, handing Megatron a laptop. "It will help us decide what level, position and class to put you in."

"Yes Sir."

Megatron waited. He had been told to wait out in the hallway while the headmaster looked over his test. Oh Primus he was nervous, this was his one chance to get into the Decepticon War Academy and the leave the gladiator pits forever. He waited. An hour pastsd by. He waited. A decepticon he didn't recognize walked by, gave him an appraising look and entered the Headmaster's office. Megatron waited. Waited and waited...

"So will you keep him?" Mindwipe asked with some genuine curiousity.

"We can't afford not to." 

The Headmaster didn't take his eyes away from the test results. "I'll put him in Maxima's house with the other prodigies. It would be interesting to see how they function together."

"Yes it would be, what were their names again?"

" Shockwave, Soundwave, and a young Seeker Model by the name of Starscream..."

Megatron looked up at the steel building that would be his home for the duration of his schooling at the academy. He jumped when he heard the door open. Standing in front of him was a purple and black femme transformer.

"Are you Maxima? The Headmaster sent me here." Megatron handed her his authorization papers.

"So your name is Megatron." She said, as she looked over his papers. "Hmm, a gladiator, well this is something new in my house. Come in, I'll introduce you to your fellow house mates."

They walked down a narrow metal hallway, which ended at a small foyer that had nine doors. Maxima opened the middle door.

"This is the study room, the other doors lead to each of our private quarters, and one leads to the upstairs, but it's here we all meet and converse. Well sort of."

Megatron looked around the room. At the center was a giant round table, while every inch of wall space was covered with shelves of data storage units and computer equipment, with the exception of the door, and couple of windows.

Only two others occupied the room. One was the strangest looking robot Megatron had ever seen. His body a deep purple, built like any other with one exception, he didn't have a face. The other was a "Seeker" model.

"Megatron this is Shockwave," Maxima pointed to the purple transformer, who nodded his head acknowledging her and Megatron. "And this is ---"

"Starscream!" The young seeker interrupted. "My name is Starscream."

"Well my boys this is your new housemate, Megatron."

"Megatron! I've seen you in the gladiator pits!" Excitement spread across Starscream's face as he continued. "You're the new champion! Can you teach me some of your combat techniques?"

Before Megatron could answer, Maxima stepped forward. "Starscream, I don't think Skyfire would approve of you learning gladiatorial combat."

"Oh, but Maxima even a scientist has to learn to fight!" whined Starscream.

"Don't whine at me!" Maxima's voice suddenly became crisp. "It's Skyfire you should whine at."

"Yes Maxima, I'm sorry."

Maxima smiled. "Why don't you show Megatron how everything works in--- wait a minute --- where's Soundwave?"

"Where else? In his room," said Shockwave, not even looking up from his computer.

"What's he doing in his room? Did the other students make fun of him again?" Maxima sighed.

"How should I know? I'm not his keeper." Starscream said indignantly

"Poor Soundwave."

Starscream leaned closer to Megatron and whispered into his audio receptor. "I don't blame the others for making fun of him, he's a weird kid."

Maxima gave him a warning look, but said nothing else. "All right all of you, its time for your required recharge time, you want to be refreshed for classes."

Starscream led Megatron out the door, while Shockwave reluctantly turned off his laptop. Starscream and Megatron stopped at the door farthest to the left of the study room. "Maxima said this was going to be your room."

Then the seeker pointed to the next door over, "This is Soundwave's room, and the next one over is my room."

Megatron smiled and opened the door to his room, "Hey, Starscream."

"Hm?" Starscream turned to face Megatron.

"How about when Maxima and Skyfire aren't looking, I'll teach you all of the combat moves I know..."

End of Chapter 1

_Thank you to all of the lovely people who are reading my first Fanfiction. Please take the time review the story and tell me what you think of it. If no one reviews I'll take it as no wants to read it, so I won't continue writing. However, if I do get reviews, even if it's only one person per chapter, I'll be glad to keep on writing and typing._


	3. The Proposition

_Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me._

**When We Were Young **

**Chapter 2 – The Proposition**

It was early morning when Megatron First caught sight of the elusive Soundwave. The dark blue and white transformer had finally come out of his room to join the other housemates for an energon breakfast. While Starscream and Shockwave talked about classes and teachers to be wary of for Megatron, Soundwave did not say single word. At one point Megatron attempted to start a conversation with the silent one, but Soundwave always found a way to answer with a shake or nod of the head. This roused Megatron's curiosity about the quiet robot, and he was determined to get Soundwave to talk.

Megatron marveled at the scale and grandeur of the Decepticon War Academy, it was more like a city than a school. Towering walls encircled the entirety of the outer boundry of the grounds. It made Megatron wonder what the Academy was trying to keep out… or in for that matter.

Starscream left Megatron, Shockwave and Soundwave, when he took notice of two other "Seeker" models. One was colored Black and purple, while the other was a bright blue and detailed with red. Megatron watched the three seekers talk, when Soundwave caught his attention.

The blue robot's head turned from side to side like frightened petrol-rabbit, as he quickly made his way across the schoolyard to the schools main door. This behavior sparked Megatron's curiosity even more. What had Soundwave so spooked?

There was a short break between the first three classes and the last three classes of the school day. Megatron was trying to find his way around school hallways when he met up with Starscream.

"Megatron, I have been looking all over for you! I want you to meet two friends of mine! That's Skywarp!" he said pointing to the black seeker, and then pointed to a blue one. "And this is his brother Thundercracker! When I told them you were my housemate they didn't believe me. Now you can tell them yourself. Go ahead! Tell them!"

A smirk crossed Megatron's face as he looked at the other two seekers. "What Starscream told you was no lie."

The faces of Skywarp and Thundercracker brightened. Before Megatron could say anything more, he was bombarded with questions from the seeker brothers. Megatron answered all of their questions as they walked out the school's main door leading to the big courtyard where all of the other students were hanging out with their various groups of friends. However, it wasn't long until the other students noticed the "new kid." They had all heard the rumors and gossip about a gladiator student and their curiosity was overpowering. Within the blink of an optic, Megatron was surrounded by excited students clamoring to get their questions answered and a possible autograph. Megatron smirked, no matter where he went, admirers where always to be found. As Megatron surveyed the crowd it seemed like the entirety of the student body were present, except one. In the farthest corner of the courtyard sat one, solitary transformer, Soundwave…

After school Megatron was trying to figure out how to get back to Maxima's house, Skyfire had kept Starscream after school, and neither Shockwave nor Soundwave could be found. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash from around the corner of the school building. Megatron turned the corner to see what all of the ruckus was about and found four of his fellow students. One was Soundwave, who was being slammed up against the school wall by another, bigger student, who if he transformed he would look like a ground tank. The other two were jets, but they were of a different model than Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp.

SMACK!

"You informed on me didn't you, you miserable piece of slag!"

The tank-student struck Soundwave across the face leaving small cracks in his faceplate. While one hand did the smacking, the other tightened around Soundwave's throat. I

"How dare you snitch on Blitzwing!" shouted one of the jets.

Soundwave shook his head, insisting the accusation was false.

"Because of you, Blitzwing has been grounded, meaning were out our best forward for this week's end Metal War Ball Game! We will lose for sure!" Screamed the other jet.

" At the very least," Blitzwing's lips began to form a vicious. "I'll be able to teach this sucker what happens to those who mess with the War Ball team!"

"What's going on?" Megatron walked into view.

"None of your Primusdamned business!" Snarled Blitzwing

Megatron felt his anger flare. No talked back to him. No one! "I asked you a question and I want an answer!"

"Who the hell do you think you are!"

"Um, Blitzwing---"

"Shut up Dirge!"

"But Blitzwing he's---"

"You too Thrust! Now I'm warning you," Blitzwing pointed at Megatron. "If you don't shut up, you're gonna take his place!" He motioned toward the still detained and very battered looking Soundwave.

"Oh will I now?" No sooner had that been said, Blitzwing found himself slammed into the wall by an enraged Megatron.

"Whoa I didn't even see him move!" Thrust whispered to Dirge.

"Who the hell are you!" Blitzwing cried as he struggled to get free from Megatron's titanium grip.

"Blitzwing he's Megatron, the new champion of the gladiator pits." Answer Dirge.

"Blast, you're telling me this NOW!"

Megatron thought for a moment. "Well since you didn't know what you were dealing with, I will forgive this incident. However I have a proposition for all of you. I will take Blitzwing's place in the game on the week's end." Megatron let go of a shocked Blitzwing. "On the condition that when we win, you and the rest of the team leave Soundwave alone. Is it a deal?"

"What if we lose?" Asked Thrust.

"You won't."

"I'm good with that arrangement." Said Thrust, both Dirge and Blitzwing nodded in agreement.

"Good, where do you meet for practice?"

"In the practice field at the west side of the school."

"Then I shall see you tomorrow." Megatron smirked as Dirge and Thrust helped Blitzwing to his feet, and dash away.

"Are you all right Sound---" Megatron looked around, but Soundwave was gone. "Hmpf. Some gratitude, maybe I should have let Blitzwing destroy him, now I have to learn the entirety of Heavy Metal War Ball before this week's end and all for nothing…"

End of Chapter 2

_Ah done with my second chapter. Poor Soundwave, I'm so mean to him, and the weird thing is he's my favorite character. Oh well you always hurt the one you love. A big Thank you goes out to **Negaprion,**_ _**Rhys, Hotshot94 aka Brent , and Agent A.T.** for their reviews. Thank you so much! Chapter 3 coming soon! And remember things aren't always what they seem._


	4. Gratitude

_Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me._

**When We Were Young**

**Chapter 3 – Gratitude**

Megatron typed up what seemed like endless pages of research on siege weapons. "Only three days in, and I already have enough homework to last a week!" he thought. "Then a again I did spend most of the late afternoon and night practicing Metal War Ball with the team. That game, it was rough, draining, and brutal…I love it already!"

Megatron shook his head. He had to concentrate on his homework. The memory of the Headmaster's warning flashed in his head. 'If if you fail to meet the expectations of this academy, you will be thrown out faster than you get in, understand?'

"Finished. Thank Primus."

Megatron was about to press the save button when…

BOOM!

The whole house went black. 'Damn! Are we under attack!'

Megatron dashed to the nearest window. He looked outside. There were no explosions, no alarms, and all of the other buildings were fully lit. What was going on?

Suddenly the lights came back on. Megatron ran out the door of the study room, he looked to his right and saw a very exasperated Maxima coming up the basement stairs followed closely by Soundwave.

"What happened Maxima!"

"Don't worry Megatron, it was just a little power surge caused by Shockwave and Starscream experimenting too much with chemicals and computer equipment!"

"SORRY!" Came the apologetic voices of Shockwave and Starscream from the basement.

Megatron relaxed for a moment until he realized " Oh Primus! MY REPORT!"

"I hadn't saved! 8 hours of work gone! It's due tomorrow! If I fail I'll be kicked out of the Academy! Gone! Gone! GONE!"

CRASH!

After a strenuous day of school, ball practice andmany hours of tedious report writing, Megatron's system couldn't take it anymore.

Megatron fell to the floor unconscious.

When Megatron awoke it was morning. He was in his room. 'What happened?' Finally his memory banks came back online. He had awoken, but his nightmare wasn't over only two hours till class and his report was gone.

"What do I do now?" he whispered to himself, feeling panic rise within him.

It was then something shiny caught his eye. On the desk next to his recharge bed he saw what looked like a data CD. He saw a note was attached, it read, 'Thank You.'

Megatron loaded the CD into his laptop. To his astonishment, it was his report!

'How?' He read it over carefully and realized that though this report had been typed in his style, wasn't exactly the same as the one he himself had typed before. This meant somebody else had taken the time to retype his report in its entirety. 'But who would…?'

Megatron read the note again. 'Thank You.'

He knew. He knew who it was.

Megatron smiled.

"You're welcome Soundwave…"


	5. Game Day

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me. Okay I was wrong in saying that the Autobots would not appear in this story, they do, but this is about the most you will see of them besides occasional cameo appearances.

**When We Were Young **

**Chapter 4 – Game Day **

It was the day of the big game! Polyhex City was a buzz with excitement. They said it would be the biggest game of the year, second only to the championships. The Decepticon Academy vs. the Autobot Academy!

Megatron soon found out why the academy had its 100-foot walls. Within an hour, the entire academy had transformed in to a giant stadium, complete with playing field, seats and concession stands. Underneath the stadium were the aptly named "war rooms" where the War Ball teams would discuss strategy before going on to the field.

"Primus! They have replaced the entire team." Said Astrotrain upon receiving the Autobot team list.

"What!"

"What do you mean?"

"How?"

The team gathered around Astrotrain and looked over the list of opponents.

"You're right Astrotrain. I don't remember the any of these guys from last year." Thundercracker looked over Astrotrain's shoulder at the list. "I wonder why they ditched Orion Pax for this Optimus Prime guy."

"I don't know, I've never heard of him, and Orion Pax had some skills. Well, let's turn this to our advantage." Said Astrotrain.

"Who's the referee this game?" asked Dirge

"It's Skyfire isn't it?" said Thrust

"I can't wait to get out there and kick some Autobot aft!" Shouted Ramjet

"I hear ya'!" A vicious smile spread across Skywarp's face.

Astrotrain turned to Megatron, "are you ready?"

Megatron smirked.

"I've waiting for this all week…"

Meanwhile, back at Maxima's house Soundwave and Shockwave were diligently working on their week's end homework.

Suddenly the soft tapping of computer keys stopped from Soundwave's end of the table. Shockwave looked up in surprise. Soundwave had stopped typing and was looking out the window. Shockwave followed Soundwave's line of sight, he wanted to see what could have caught the focus of a robot spent more time on a computer than he did. Soundwave was looking in the direction of the academy, now a stadium.

'Odd,' thought Shockwave. 'Soundwave has never shown any interest in sports before.'

"Soundwave?"

Soundwave turned to face Shockwave. "Shockwave, explain the rules of Metal War Ball."

"Metal War Ball? Well I… I… I don't know much about it. Um…"

"We should educate ourselves then."

"What?" Shockwave tilted his head in confusion. He had a feeling of what Soundwave was trying to say, but he couldn't believe it.

"We should watch and educate ourselves on the academy popular sport."

"Soundwave I don't think I see your reasoning why we should…" Shockwave started, but then, as he looked at Soundwave he noticed something he had never seen before. Behind Soundwave's emotionless exterior, Shockwave could tell that, for whatever reason, he really wanted to watch the game, education or not. Soundwave had been through a lot that week, usually Shockwave did not concern himself with what happened to Soundwave, but even he had to admit Blitzwing's brutality toward the silent robot was horribly uncalled for. So Shockwave decided, for once, to humor Soundwave. "All right Soundwave, let's watch the game."

Skyfire stepped out on to the field. "Captains! It's time for the coin toss, please approach the center of the field."

From the Autobot side came the new captain Optimus Prime.

From the Decepticon side came Astrotrain.

"All right I want a good clean game from both teams. Remember no guns, swords or any other projectile and external weapons, and NO TRANSFORMING! Astrotrain call the toss."

"Tails."

Skyfire tossed the coin…

Starscream sat impatiently next to Maxima. A pang of annoyance ran through his mental circuits when Skyfire announced that the Autobots had won the toss, but it was soon forgotten when the energy force shield came up to protect the audience from some of the more violent antics of the players. Then a panel at each end of the playing field floor opened. Out from each of the panels floated a ring slightly larger than a transformer. Starscream heard a loud cheer begin to rise up as he watched the Decepticon goalkeeper, Thundercracker, fly out on to the field and take his place in front of the Decepticon goal ring. The cheers subsided slightly when the Autobot goalkeeper took his position in front of the Autobot goal ring. The other players of each team came out and took to their respective positions on the game field floor.

"Members of the audience," the announcer's voice came over the stadium speakers. "Here are your competitors! On the Autobot team is the new captain Optimus Prime, playing center forward. Jazz as right forward, Sunstreaker as left forward, Ironhide as center defense, Prowl as right defense, Brawn as left defense, and finally Bluestreak, as goalkeeper, taking the place of Sideswipe who is one the injured list."

"Now on team Decepticon, we have team captain Astrotrain playing right forward. New member Megatron, taking the place of Blitzwing, as center forward, Skywarp as left forward, Thrust as center defense, Dirge as right defense, Ramjet as left defense. And last, but sure as hell not the least, goalkeeper THUNDERCRACKER!"

A roar of cheers erupted from the Decepticons in the stadium at the announcement of Thundercracker's name. Not one point had been scored against Thundercracker all year, and he was aiming to become the first transformer to ever go a perfect season as goalkeeper. There were only four quarters standing between him and the ultimate goal of his young life. He wanted it, the team wanted it, and in fact the entirety of the Decepticon population wanted it with him. An achievement like this would boost Decepticon morale a hundred fold.

Skyfire walked to the middle of the field and called the two center forwards to step up. Megatron and Optimus Prime faced each other.

"May the best team win."

Skyfire tossed the ball into the air.

"Let the game begin…!"

" And folks we are now nearing the end of the third quarter, and what game we have the score is tied at zero to zero and it doesn't look like anyone is willing to give up."

Astrotrain watched in stunned silence as the Decepticon Metal War Ball team was falling apart. He just couldn't believe it, the only thing that was keeping the Decepticon team from total disaster was Thundercracker's desire for goal keeping perfection. Astrotrain's thoughts were interrupted when he saw something silver rushed past him.

Megatron flew at top speed toward the Autobot goal ring. Bluestreak spread out his arms and legs to cover as much of the goal as possible until he was sure of what move Megatron was going to make. Ironhide charged toward Megatron. The silver transformer tossed the ball to the awaiting arms of Skywarp who took off upon receiving it. Prowl and Sideswipe flew up alongside of Skywarp with the intent of giving him a good side ways bashing. Unfortunately they either forgot or didn't know about Skywarp's special ability, the ability for which he had his name. One second he was there, the next he was gone. Sideswipe and Prowl ended up crashing into each other, while Skywarp reappeared in front of the Autobot goal ring.

'Ha I'm gonna score the winning goal!' thought Skywarp.

Then…

_**BOOM!**_

Goalkeeper Bluestreak barreled into Skywarp, just barely a micro second before the ball left Skywarp's hand. It bounced off the rim of the goal ring and fell uselessly into Prowl's possession. He took off toward the Decepticon side of the field. Just before he reached the field midline he passed the ball to the waiting hands of Sunstreaker, who had his sights set on breaking the perfection of the infamous goalkeeper, Thundercracker!

Out of the corner of his one optic he saw Ramjet charging toward him at full speed, out of the other optic he saw Dirge doing the same thing. "Heh, sorry guys I was already on to your scheme even before you started it.' Sunstreaker smirked to himself. ' You guys are planning to hit me when I get close to the goal ring allowing Thundercracker easy ball retrieval. Too bad I'm not gonna cooperate with your little plan.'

Sunstreaker put on his jet brakes and watched, with a big smile on his face, as Dirge and Ramjet smashed into each other. However, Sunstreaker's pleasure was short lived.

"Sunstreaker! Look out!"

Sunstreaker turned just in time to see something blue coming at his face. Pain shot through his head when the blue thing impacted the place between his optics. In his dazed state the ball was jerked from his hands by a blue thing, with wings…?

BUZZ!

"Oh what a play by Thundercracker! Well folks three quarters down and one to go in this exciting game! We will take a short break and then finish the last fifteen minutes of the game."

The Decepticon team met next to their goal ring.

"Guys I just have one thing to say." Said Thundercracker in an almost pleading voice. "You guys have got to score a goal before this game is over, because after having the Autobots in my goal territory for three quarters of the game so far, I'm not going to hold up in the after game, kick-off, tie breaker."

Astrotrain looked at Thundercracker with sympathy, the goalkeeper was so close to his ambition, and it would be the worst tragedy ever, if they let it slip away. "Thundercracker's right you guys we're falling apart here."

"I don't get it Astrotrain, it's like they know every single on of our plays," spat Thrust.

Suddenly Astrotrain felt a horrible realization dawn on him. "I think I know why."

The team's attention to their captain.

"Remember when our laptop disappeared for 24 hours, two days ago. Apparently, we hadn't just 'misplaced' it."

"It was STOLEN!"

"Thank you Dirge, stator of the bleeding obvious." Shouted Skywarp.

"Shut up Skywarp! I didn't exactly see you kick aftwhen you made a teleport for that goal."

"Oh yeah? How about you 'Mr. I'm-stupid-enough-to-crash-into-my-partner.' Maybe if you actually did some defending out there, Thundercracker wouldn't be so out of it!" Retorted Skywarp.

"I'm not out of it." Thundercracker snapped back.

"All right you guys, knock it off!" Shouted Astrotrain.

"Fellow Decepticons! There is a simple solution to our problem." The team focused their optics on Megatron. "If our plays have been stolen, we simply make up new ones."

"Ok genius." Astrotrain crossed his arms and narrowed his optics. "Got any ideas?"

"As a matter of fact I do…"

Soundwave and Shockwave had over the course of the game moved from the table across the room from the viewing screen, to basically having their optics press up against it.

"You know Soundwave, this sports game stuff is strangely entertaining."

Soundwave nodded in response.

"Hm, it seems as if our team is figuring out what to do." Said Shockwave.

"Megatron is doing the talking. He is taking leadership from Astrotrain." Soundwave's monotone voice finally made itself known.

"Yes he is, maybe they'll started scoring some points now."

"Affirmative. Change in present strategy should increase chance of success."

"Well, my prediction is that we shall have to wait and see."

5 minutes left in the game, but the score still remained zero to zero. However things had changed, the Autobots had been in possession of the ball on the Decepticon side for the majority of the game, now it was the Decepticons who remained on the Autobot's side of the field.

"Timeout!" Megatron called out and the game stopped. All of the Decepticon players gathered around Megatron. "All right, 5 minutes left now it's time to pull our ultimate play. Astrotrain, Skywarp, you know what to do."

The Decepticons took their positions on the field. Skyfire signaled for the game to restart. Megatron charged forward Optimus Prime flew to meet him. However, instead of continuing to Blitz, like Megatron made it look. He threw the ball straight up into the air. Meanwhile Skywarp and Astrotrain launched themselves toward the ball. Astrotrain grabbed for the ball, while Skywarp teleported. Astrotrain raced towards the Autobot goal ring, with the other Autobots in hot pursuit. Bluestreak flew out of goal territory to intercept Astrotrain right in his tracks, but this left the goal ring wide open. Bluestreak tackled Astrotrain, but Bluestreak had made a terrible mistake.

DING!

"And we finally have a point on the scoreboard! And only 60 seconds left!"

Bluestreak stared in horror at Skywarp hovering in front of the goal, smirking evilly.

" You tricked us!" Shouted Bluestreak.

"Not exactly, only let you believe what you wanted to believe. You believed that I had the ball, and I didn't make a move to discourage that belief. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a game to play." Astrotrain left in pursuit of Optimus Prime, who now had possession of the ball.

Optimus Prime was aiming to tie the game. He was mere feet away when a silver transformer rammed into his side. The ball dropped from Optimus Prime's hand.

Sunstreaker was quick to intercept. He wanted revenge for the damage Thundercracker had done to his face. He launched the ball with all of the strength he could muster to the Decepticon goal ring.

Thundercracker reached for it…

"**HE CAUGHT IT!**" The announcer's voice rang out from the speakers. "I CAN'T BELIEVE HE CAUGHT IT! TIME IS UP! GAME IS OVER! DECEPTICON VICTORY…!"

**Oh My God!** 15 reviews! You guys are so wonderful! I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and with tears of joy in my eyes. In the next chapter it's party time for the Decepticons! And Soundwave reveals his new and very special project. Please keep the reviews coming, and don't be afraid to leave your opinions on character portrayals and things you would like to see. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

_**P.S.** Don't get me wrong, I love Thundercracker, but with how the rest of the story goes I can't have him be the captain of the team. I hope you will be happy with him being the record-breaking goalie and the most popular guy on the team._


	6. Celebrations

_Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me._

_I raised the rating for this chapter because of drunkenness, and bad language_.

**When We Were Young**

**Chapter5 - Celebrations**

**Perception Circuits:**

Online

He awoke.

**Audio Receptors:**

Online

He heard voices. They were close. Skywarp? Astrotrain?

**Optic Receptors:**

Online

His optics sharpened into focus, and the shadows took the shape of his teammates, Blitzwing included.

"Hey TC!" Skywarp's head popped into view. "Welcome back to the land of moving parts."

"Where am I?"

"In the Academy Medic Center."

"How ya' feeling?" Astrotrain smiled.

Thundercracker slowly sat up. All of his joints and ligaments felt like they had been rusting for eons. "Ugh. Remind me never to use my Sonic Boom Boost when I'm still in robot form. So how did the rest of the game go?"

"You don't---! That's right you blacked out after using your special ability." A smirk began to form on Skywarp's face. He leaned in close to his brother's audio receptor and whispered. "You caught the ball and we won the game…"

Thundercracker's optics widened. "I…I caught it?"

His fellow team members nodded and they all had big smiles on their faces.

Thundercracker just sat there for a few seconds in silence trying to fully comprehend what this meant. However the silence did not last long.

"YEAHOO! I did it! I did it! _I am_ the perfect goalkeeper!"

Thundercracker jumped to his feet and proceeded to do a little victory dance. His stiff ligaments were no match for his happiness, and his teammates, feeling his happiness joined him in stomping and cheering.

"BOYS! BOYS! Stop your dancing this instant! This is a med center not a stadium!" The team turned to face the head medic.

"Sorry about that." Astrotrain stepped forward to answer for the team. "It's just that our teammate here reached goalkeeping perfection."

"Yes, Yes, I well aware of Thundercracker's accomplishment. By all means celebrate, but please do it someplace else."

The team nodded their heads and quickly exited the med center.

"Well, with this new found glory, you know what we have to do." Smirked Blitzwing.

"Yes." Skywarp smirked back at Blitzwing, then turned to Thundercracker. "We have to get you cratered _immediately!_"

"Oh, Primus no." Thundercracker looked wearily at his teammates. All now had mischievous smiles on their faces. "Come on guys, I just got out of the med lab."

"It's tradition." Thrust stated as the War Ball team's smiles grew wider.

"Whose tradition?"

"**_OUR_** TRADITION!" announced Ramjet.

"Right…" Thundercracker shook his head in defeat. "Ah, what the hell, let's go."

"**ALL RIGHT!**" They all shouted.

"Well, look at it this way, we will be killing two petro-rabbits with one blast. We will get Thundercracker properly cratered and be able to give Megatron a tour of the hottest club on campus." Astrotrain said in a "matter of fact" voice.

"Sounds good to me." Said Megatron.

"WHERE IS MEGATRON?" Maxima fumed as paced up and down the hallway. "I told him to be back by at 2400 hours, and it is now 0100 hours!"

Maxima stopped pacing and made her way to the door. "That's it! I'm going to go down to that club and drag Megatron home by the audio receptor! A little humiliation does wonders for getting young Decepticons to follow the rules!"

Maxima was just about to step out the door when…

BUZZ!

Maxima walked over to a giant screen on the left side of the hallway. She pressed a button on the control panel just below the screen. The screen image flickered to life and revealed the identity of the caller. It was the Headmaster himself…!

Soundwave felt a shudder run through his body as his sensors jolted him awake. He felt the sensation of being shaken. His audio receptors came online.

"Soundwave! Soundwave!" called a familiar voice barely above a whisper.

Soundwave's optics came online. "Maxima?"

"I'm sorry to wake you at this hour Soundwave, but I need you to run an important errand for me." Maxima began to unplug Soundwave from the recharge bed. "I need you to go over to the Academy Nightclub and bring Megatron home. The Headmaster has called me so I cannot go myself."

Soundwave unplugged the last recharge bed cable and stood up. "Mission to retrieve Megatron, accepted."

"Good." Maxima handed Soundwave a hand-sized computer. "Show this to the guys at the door, just in case they give you any trouble. Please get home as quick as you can."

Soundwave nodded. "Certify."

If there was one place to party after a Metal War Ball game, the Academy Clubhouse was it. Particularly this game, being the biggest triumph ever, there was extra celebration. This also made it especially hard to gain access. Basically you had be a popular student on the "in" crowd or a Metal War Ball team member in order to be granted passage into the club. So, under any other circumstance, Soundwave would not have been allowed two inches into Clubhouse. However, with the hand-held computer authorization Maxima had given him and the fact that he explained he would only be there for a few minutes to pick-up his housemate, Soundwave was permitted into the Clubhouse without a hitch.

"Oh Primus, what the hell is he doing here?" snarled Blitzwing as he watched Soundwave cautiously make his way across the crowded dancing floor toward the Metal War Ball team's table. The teammates turned in the direction of Blitzwing's attention, with the exception of Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge who were on the dancing floor, and Thundercracker who was surrounded by once filled "Heavy Energon" glasses and had his head down on the table and optics closed trying to stop the world from spinning.

Soundwave slowly approached the team's table. Fear began to fill every circuit in his body when he saw the glare of hatred in Blitzwing's optics. They both remembered the incident that had taken place between them only days ago. Soundwave's visual sensors shifted from Blitzwing to Megatron who was sitting in between Thundercracker and Astrotrain.

"Megatron, Maxima has sent me to bring you back to the house." Soundwave's voice, like always, was cool and emotionless, with neither anger nor happiness resounding in it.

"Why, she said I had to be home by 2400 hours, but my timekeeper only says 2200."

"You heard him Soundwave, now do use us all a favor and go home!" sneered Blitzwing.

Soundwave ignored Blitzwing's remark. "Megatron, your timekeeper is off, it is now 0130 hours."

"That's what mine says." Astrotrain drowsily answered as he took another drink of 'Heavy Energon.'

"Aw, hell!" Megatron slammed his hands down on the table. At the same time Thundercracker's head popped up and his optics snapped open.

"WHAT? I'M UP! I'M UP!" Then all of the energon that Thundercracker had ingested seemed to rush to his head, and the world spun around once more. "Ughhhh. Moved to fast. Shouldna' done that."

"What ails Thundercracker?" Soundwave inquired.

"Nothin'!" Skywarp laughed patting Thundercracker on the back. "TC just drank one to many 'Heavy Energon'"

"**_One_** too many? More like **_fifty_** too many, and don't pat me on the back, it makes it worse. Whoa, head spin." Then Thundercracker seemed to take notice of Soundwave for the first time. "Oh, hey there Soundwave, uh wanna drink?"

"You're offering **_him_** a drink! What the hell is wrong with you Thundercracker?" Blitzwing's face contorted in rage.

"Hey, Blitzwing!" Thundercracker shouted back equally angry. "Sit your aft down! And shut the hell up!"

"But Thundercracker he---"

"I said shut up! This is **_my_** party dammit! For **_my_** perfection in the game, that you weren't even **_in_**, because of your stupid pranks! And we're doin' what _**I** _want! And if Soundwave wants a drink! He can damned have one! So shut the hole in your face and SIT DOWN!"

Everybody, including Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge, who had just arrived back from the dancing floor, stood in shock at Thundercracker's sudden outburst, particularly a very stunned Blitzwing. Usually Thundercracker was the mature one of the group. Then as if the previous flare-up had not happened Thundercracker turned to Soundwave.

"Here Soundwave."Thundercracker held up a glass of 'Heavy Energon' to Soundwave. Soundwave was startled at first by the gesture, but quickly regained his composure.

"My gratitude, goalkeeper Thundercracker, however I must decline. 'Heavy Energon' would impede my mission."

"Mission? Is it time for class already!" Thundercracker worriedly looked at his timekeeper.

"No Thunder, it's time to get you home before the 'Heavy Energon' makes you do something _really_ stupid?" Said Astrotrain.

"Whadya' talkin' 'bout Astro!" Thundercracker jumped up from his seat. "I'm just fin---WWHAAOOOOOHHHHH!"

Suddenly the world took another spin, downward. Down, down, down….

THUNK!

Thundercracker lay face down on the floor.

"You okay there TC!" Called Skywarp casually.

"Astrotrain." Came a small, half whimpering, voice from the Clubhouse floor.

"Yeah?" Astrotrain kneeled down next to Thundercracker.

"I wanna go home."

Astrotrain smiled and patted his teammate on the shoulder, then began to help him to his feet. "Don't worry Thunder, we'll get ya' home."

"Hey, I've got an idea." Megatron spoke up. "Since we're heading out anyway, how about Soundwave and I take him home. That way you guys could stay on and party."

"I like that idea!" said Ramjet holding up his glass, the others nodded in agreement.

Megatron and Soundwave helped support Thundercracker as they made their way to the door.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" Astrotrain called after them.

"We'll be fine." Answered Megatron. "Plus you need to stay here and keep the others in line."

"Good point…"

As it turns out the residual effects of a 'Heavy Energon' overdose, and bumping into various objects was more than Thundercracker's body could handle. After a run in with a lamp pole, Thundercracker fell on to his back and didn't get up again, in fact he didn't even move. Soundwave did a quick life scan on Thundercracker, and assured Megatron that the Metal War Ball team's goalkeeper was still functioning. Since Soundwave was the soberest of the two conscience robots, he took on the task of carrying the cratered Seeker.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry him?" Asked Megatron.

"Negative, in your current condition you may fall over. Causing more injury to you both."

"Oh, yeah hmmm…." Megatron absently looked up at the stars and buildings as they walked.

"Well what do we have here, here." A scratchy speech impeded voice came from behind Soundwave and Megatron.

"Damn," whispered Soundwave, as he and Megatron turned around to meet the owner of the voice. They saw three figures walking casually toward them.

"What's wrong? Who are they?" Megatron whispered to Soundwave.

"Shrapnel, Bombshell, and Kickback." Soundwave answered with an unusually harsh tone to his voice. "Beware, they are bad company…"

_To my beloved readers and reviewers,_

_I am soooooo sorry for the delay in bringing out this chapter. I just wanted to make sure that everything was well written and that I had a nice long chapter for you. I know I'm evil to leave the chapter off like this, but I had to put in some suspense somewhere. Don't worry I'll have the next up very soon! Please keep the reviews coming! Tell me your thoughts and opinions on how I'm portraying the characters and what you would like to see happen in the story. Till next time!_


	7. Cratered and Drafted

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

**When We Were Young**

**Chapter6 – Cratered and Drafted**

"So Megatron, um that is your name isn't it?" The one named Bombshell asked with a sly hiss to his voice. Megatron nodded. "Are you in the enterprise of kidnapping the Metal War Ball teams goalkeeper?"

"Uh…no…" Said Megatron dryly. "Thundercracker got a little cratered and we're merely taking him home."

"Excellent, the Arial House is on the way back to our place." Smirked Kickback.

"Yes we would be happy to drop off the seeker for you, for you." A smirk spread across Shrapnel's face as he reached for the unconscious Thundercracker, who was being carried piggyback style by Soundwave.

Soundwave did not like the hungry look he saw in Shrapnel's optics. He quickly backed away to keep Thundercracker out of the other Decepticon's reach. Shrapnel's smirk quickly faded. "Are you implying something about us Soundwave, wave?"

"Negative, Thundercracker is in need of a recharge immediately, to relieve his condition." Answered Soundwave uncharacteristically quickly. "Maxima's house is closer and that is our destination."

"I see, see." Shrapnel's frown slowly turned back into a smirk. "Be on your way then. Perhaps we shall have the opportunity to assist Thundercracker some other time, time. "

With that Shrapnel, Bombshell, and Kickback headed off in the opposite of Megatron and Soundwave.

"What was all of that about?" Megatron looked at Soundwave widening one optic and narrowing the other.

"They are bad company. They bear ill will toward the members of the Metal War Ball team."

"What for?"

"The Metal War Ball team rejected their proposal for joining the team. Extensive injury would be assured if Thundercracker were to be placed into their hands."

"Hmmm."

"They also looked at you as if they wanted to rip you apart."

"Really? Hmm. I guess it's because they admitted me on to the team."

"Affirmative."

"I guess I didn't notice."

"' Heavy Energon' temporarily breaks down the logic and visual circuits."

"Heh. I'll drink to that. Hey! We're home." Megatron smiled as he opened the door.

The micro second Soundwave and Megatron walked through the doorway, something, small and black, launched itself at Soundwave. The force of impact the black thing had with Soundwave's chest plate was enough to knock him over, taking Thundercracker with him. Megatron was about to help, but all he ended up doing was watch in amazement as the black thing's mouth opened and metal tongue slithered out, and then proceeded to lick Soundwave across the side of his faceplate. Meanwhile, Thundercracker was beginning to regain consciousness, fortunately he was still too cratered to notice the awkward position he and Soundwave were in. However, Soundwave did.

"RAVAGE! OFF!"

The black thing, now referred to as Ravage, jumped off of Soundwave's chest and sat on the floor looking absolutely crushed at being yelled at. Soundwave quickly jumped to his feet and stepped back just as Thundercracker sat up rubbing his head.

"Where am I? Why am I on this floor?"

Soundwave walked over to ravage and picked him up. He held Ravage out in front of him for moments, and stared into the black creature's optics. As he did so, Ravage's sadness seemed to melt away, as some kind of reprimand then forgiveness passed between them that no else, but those two could see.

Megatron was about to ask about what had just taken place when they heard a high-pitched voice say. "Hey guys, Shockwave has something he wants to say to you."

Soundwave turned his head to see Starscream and Shockwave standing there. Shockwave spoke, his words saturated with irritation. "All of you would do well to hear this. Yes even you Mr. Decepticon-who-is-down-on-the-floor."

"Huh? What?" Thundercracker looked very confused.

"Listen up. Now I am usually a very tolerant robot. I do not explode in a tirade very often, so when I do, I have good reason." Shockwave's voice started out calm, but that quickly changed.

"Now whether it's practicing your new fighting techniques **_Megatron_**, your exploding science experiments **_Starscream_**, or your pet projects scratching on the door **_Soundwave_**, and whatever loud noises **_you_** make!" Shockwave shouted, pointing at Thundercracker, who still looked very dazed and confused. "I tell you now that if you wake me up, if I do not get enough recharge time! I SWEAR! **I WILL GO INSANE**! **_AND I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME_**!"

Silence.

"_**Agreed?"**_

All nodded.

"Good. So how was your evening?" Shockwave's voice immediately returned to it's normal calm.

Starscream was about to say, 'Shockwave, you've got more screws loose than a junk yard,' when Maxima came through the door. Everyone froze in terror. Starscream's optics grew as wide as a War Ball. Soundwave stood cold, clutching Ravage who looked as equally petrified. Shockwave took a step back putting arms up to shield himself from an oncoming tirade.

"AH! Maxima we can explain! We were just---" Megatron began.

"Take Thundercracker into the spare room and go recharge yourselves," said Maxima in a weary voice as she walked past the group.

Everyone watched as Maxima made her way down the hallway. Finally Starscream took the initiative, ran over to Thundercracker and began to pull him to his feet. "Quick guys! Let's just do as she says now, before she changes her mind and really nails us with one her 'Follow the Rules or Else' lectures!"

All agreed and began to rush off to their rooms. When Starscream finally had Thundercracker standing, the blue Seeker narrowed his optics at the silver and red one. "Who are you?"

Starscream answered in a flat, tired voice. "Starscream. You know, one of your best friends."

"Oh, yeah. Starscream……………………………………………………………………………………………………what's your name again?"

"Where the hell am I!"

With that conscious thought, a terrible pain throbbed in Thundercracker's head. He slowly began to unplug himself from the recharge bed as the rest of his body continued to awaken. After a few seconds, he decided to try walking. Each foot felt like it weighed a hundred tons, but he managed to keep his balance. He opened the door and walked out into the hallway.

"Hmmm…No loud noises, no cracks in the floor, no graffiti on the walls and no skid marks on the ceiling. Yep this is definitely not the Arial House. So where am I?" Thundercracker sighed to himself.

"Greetings Thundercracker."

"AHH!" Thundercracker jumped, whirled around, and reflexively positioned himself into a fighting stance. When he finally got a lock on who had greeted him, he relaxed a little. "Soundwave? I…you were so quite I didn't…Please don't do that again. My head's pounding enough already from the 'Heavy Energon' overload, I don't need my alarm systems kicking in as well."

"My apologies. Follow." Soundwave motioned for Thundercracker to follow. He did.

"So, where am I?"

"You are in the house of Maxima," said Soundwave as he stopped at one of the many doors that lined the hallway. Soundwave saw a look of surprise cross Thundercracker's face as he opened the door. Four heads swiveled around to see who was entering the study room. The room's occupants consisted of Maxima, Starscream, Megatron and Shockwave.

"Hey there Thundercracker, you recognize my now?" Starscream voice was bright and happy.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

"Well, you didn't last night?"

"Wha?"

"I think before we can fill you in on what happened, we need to know to know where you left off," Shockwave logically pointed out.

"I remember yelling at Blitzwing, then falling on the floor. Did he punch me! Is that why I have this dent in my for head!"

"No," answered Megatron taking another sip from another small energon cube.

"After Soundwave and I escorted you out of the Clubhouse. You attempted to walk by yourself, and in your cratered condition you walked into a light pole………………three times."

"I see," said Thundercracker wearily rubbing his head. "By the way, did you guys call the team and tell them I spent the night here."

Silence. All of the young Decepticons looked at each other.

"Oh hell." Thundercracker put a hand to his dented forehead to try and stop the pounding. "Do you have any idea what my teammates will do if they wake up and find me gone? Think about it. Three weeks before the War Ball Championship Tournament. And their prime goalkeeper is missing after being totally cratered last night."

Everybody got up and ran to the communications computer.

Meanwhile at the Arial House…

"THUNDERCRACKER! WHERE ARE YOU!" Skywarp screamed while running down the hallways of the Arial House. Astrotrain came out and caught Skywarp in mid yell.

"Skywarp, calm down! What's the matter with you?" Astrotrain said, half in irritation and half in genuine concern.

"HE'S NOT THERE! I DON'T KNOW WHY HE'S NOT THERE! HE'S JUST NOT THERE! WHEN I WOKE UP HE WASN'T THERE! I DON'T LIKE WHEN HE'S NOT THERE, BECAUSE HE'S NOT THERE! WE GOTTA FIND HIM!"

"SKYWARP!"

"Yes."

"Calm down."

"What's goin' on." Thrust, followed by Dirge and Ramjet, wearily walked towards the two.

"We---"

"Would you guys keep it down? I've got enough of a headache with ya'll yellin' and screamin'!" Blitzwing stormed toward them.

"Blitzwing we can't find Thundercracker," said Astrotrain calmly.

"Well ain't that nice for you. We can jus…………**_WHAT!" _**

"DAMN! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!" Shouted Dirge.

"I SAY WE PERFORM ARIAL SEARCH AND INTERIGATE THOSE WHO KNOW HIS WHEREABOUTS!"

Everybody paused and stared at Ramjet.

"But he's right! We have to go and search for Thundercracker!" Yelled Skywarp, as he ran for the door.

"Whoa! Hold on there, Skywarp," Astrotrain grabbed the purple and black Seeker's wings. "Look there's gotta be a **_logical_** way to find Thundercracker."

Everyone looked at Astrotrain and gasped.

"BLASPHEMY!" shouted Ramjet directly into Astrotrain's face.

"Don't you dare pull a Shockwave on us Astrotrain!" Blitzwing yelled angrily.

Astrotrain rolled his optics. "Fine. But let's start here. Does anyone remember what happened to Thundercracker last night."

Silence.

"I guess we _all_ had one too many 'Heavy Energons.'" Said Dirge dejectedly.

They stood there pondering what they should do next when the Arial House Caretaker entered the room.

"Hey boys I just got a call from Maxima. She said that Thundercracker spent the night at their house after the party, and except for a monstrous headache, brought about by ingesting too much 'Heavy Energon', he's A-okay."

The Caretaker walked out of the room while the team stood there.

"Ya' know, if Thundercracker wasn't our goalkeeper, I'd kill him for not calling us sooner." Blitzwing snarled.

"Blitzwing, if Thundercracker wasn't our goalkeeper, you wouldn't give a damn."

"Damn you and your logic Astrotrain!" Shouted Thrust.

Knock. Knock.

Astrotrain opened the door to find the Headmaster standing there. Astrotrain had to tilt his head up slightly to look into the Headmaster's optics.

"Can I help you Sir?"

"Yes, Astrotrain I must talk to you." The Headmaster voice was about as emotionless as Soundwave's. "Alone."

"Sir!" Blitzwing came forward. "If this about the prank I pulled the other day. I swear! Astrotrain had nothing to do with it!"

"This is not about that. Come Astrotrain."

Astrotrain obediently followed the Headmaster outside. Meanwhile the others, with exception of Skywarp, sat by the window and watched the Headmaster and Astrotrain talk.

"Hey guys, I gonna go out the back door and head over to Maxima's house to check on my brother. See ya later." Skywarp took of.

"Uh oh, it looks like Astro's in trouble." Thrust commented after they saw Astrotrain's jaw drop in shock. The Headmaster's lips moved again and Astrotrain's head slowly drooped. The Headmaster put a hand on Astrotrain's shoulder, and talked a little more. Astrotrain nodded his head. The Headmaster began to walk away, while Astrotrain stayed put, with his head hung down for a few seconds. He then headed back for the house, no less dejected.

"Hey Astro, what'd he say! What happened!"

Astrotrain was silent for a few seconds. It was odd, his optics seemed to be filled with sorrow.

"I---I've---I've been drafted."

"What! You can't mean that yo---!"

"I am to immediately pack up my things and then head to the frontlines…"

_Poor Astrotrain. I'm so mean to him. I know I'm evil to leave the chapter off like this. Don't worry I'll update soon. Thanks again for all of the reviews you guys sent me. Please keep them coming! Tell me how I'm doing on character portrayals and things you would like to see. Oh one more thing! Tell me who you think should be the Arial House Caretaker, (he can't be one of the students). Contact me at Till next time!_


	8. Unexpected Partings and Ancient Cybertro...

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

**When We Were Young**

**Chapter7 – Unexpected Partings and Ancient Cybertronian Doors**

"I can't believe your little bot, creation, thing, bit me, and that **_you_** actually punched me Soundwave!" Skywarp snarled rubbing the dent in his jaw, as he, Thundercracker, Megatron and Soundwave walked down the street toward the Aerial House. Soundwave glared at Skywarp in response.

"Serves you right," Megatron smirked. "What did you expect would happen when you called Ravage an 'oversized petro-rabbit'?"

Skywarp huffed indignantly, then mumbled something about wishing some petro-rabbits would eat Soundwave. Apparently Soundwave heard Skywarp's mumbling, because Megatron saw him shoot a glare so harsh that if looks could kill, Skywarp would be dead before he hit the ground.

"Megatron, when you're done yelling at my brother, would you do me a favor?" Thundarcracker groaned.

"That depends, what is it?"

"Shoot me. Put your fusion cannon to my head and pull the trigger. Please?" Thundercracker half whimpered.

"Sorry, no can do Thundercracker. No taking the easy way out of a hangover." Megatron chuckled

"You're mean."

"Hey Soundwave! Why are you coming with us back to the Aerial House? I figured you'd want to stay as far away from Blitzwing as possible." Sneered Skywarp.

"The Decepticon Museum is in this same direction. I am meeting Shockwave there. When you reach your destination at the Aerial House I will keep going." Soundwave answered calmly.

"Figures, you guys would--- Hey what's going on over there." Skywarp pointed straight ahead. In front of the Aerial house they saw their fellow students, who belonged there, all gathered around Astrotrain in his space shuttle mode.

"Hey! Guys!" The group saw Thrust running toward them.

"Thrust what's going on?" Megatron inquired.

"Didn't ya' hear Astrotrain's been drafted! He's about to leave!" Thrust spoke frantically.

"WHAT!" The news about Astrotrain alleviated Thundercracker's hangover. "Does Blitzwing know about this?"

"Yeah when Astrotrain told us, he got really pissed off, went into his room, slammed the door and hasn't come out since." Thrust reported. "And if I were you, I wouldn't get within a 100ft of him."

Thundercracker didn't wait for Thrust to say any more. He broke into a run toward the group of students and Astrotrain. He made his way through the crowd and stopped just in front of Astrotrain's nose cone.

"Is it true?" Was Thundercracker could manage to say.

"Yes I have been called to go to the Decepticon frontlines. They are in desperate need of a transport transformer who knows how to fight and keep a cool head. I've been chosen."

"When did you find out about this?"

"2 hours ago, from the Headmaster himself. Now that all of my belongs have been loaded, I have to leave."

"When will you be back?"

"I don't know. Maybe a few days, a few weeks, or……" Astrotrain trailed off, everyone knew that there was the definite possibility that Astrotrain might not return. "All I do know is that I'm not going to be able to play in the War Ball Championship Tournament."

Astrotrain saw everyone's sorrowful expressions and attempted to lighten things up. "I trust you guys will be able to choose a new captain without ripping each other's cranial chambers out."

Everyone remained silent with partially bowed heads.

"Please you guys," Astrotrain said dejectedly. "This is hard enough as it is. Blitzwing is already sore at me, but not you guys too."

"Astrotrain is right." Megatron stepped forward. "He doesn't want to remember all of us dejected and depressed."

Megatron turned to Astrotrain. He wore a genuinely sympathetic smile on his face. "Don't worry, I think everyone's just depressed because they don't have the time to give you a proper 'Soldier's Farewell.' So I guess you'll just have to come back so that we can give you a proper 'Welcome Home' party."

At that Thundercracker and the others managed weak grins and smiles.

"Hey Astro! Could ya' bring me back a souvenir from the front." Skywarp chimed in cheerfully.

"Sure."

"Don't bring him back too much. His 'collection' is already beginning to spread to my side of the room." Thundercracker smirked, but then it subsided into a gentle smile. "Come back to us Astrotrain. Ok?"

"It's getting late I have to be on my way, but I just want to say that it's been great being part of the team."

Everyone backed away as Astrotrain started up his engines and took off into the sky. Thundercracker nearly jumped when Blitzwing walked up next to him. The triple changer's optics were focused on the shrinking image of Astrotrain, until the young space shuttle was but a tiny speck and then disappeared completely. Thundercracker thought he saw something shimmer just below Blitzwing's optics.

'Could it be…No…Somebody else, maybe, but not Blitzwing.'

Thundercracker turned his gaze back up to the sky and wondered.

_Would we ever see our friend again…?_

Megatron sat in the study room staring out the window at the academy in the distance. He was alone in the house. After hearing the news about Astrotrain, Starscream headed over to the Arial House to see if any of his fellow seekers needed anything, and Soundwave and Shockwave were at the museum. Megatron's thoughts were on the loss of Astrotrain and how to the captainship of the Metal War Ball team. 'Too bad about the circumstances. Astrotrain is a good, cool-headed team player, and one of the few transformers that doesn't annoy the hell out of me. Unfortunately that's the way war goes, you can try to save as many as you can, but regrettably some are lost. I'll have to handle this carefully at first, if I'm too forceful they'll reject me, but if I'm too soft they won't respect me.'

Megatron's thoughts were interrupted when Soundwave and Shockwave entered the room. The silver robot was surprised when he noticed that the two seemed a bit shaken, like they'd just failed on their grade report.

"You guys ok?"

"The strangest thing happened." Shockwave's normal cold and condescending voice had dwindled to a weary and bewildered one. "I found Soundwave standing in front of the ancient artifact door in the museum. You know the one with the prehistoric Cybertronian symbols on it. Well Soundwave put his hand on the door and one by one the symbols began to glow slightly."

Megatron raised and optic and looked over to Soundwave.

"I was in a trance–like state. Reason for touching the door is unknown." Soundwave answered.

"I," continued Shockwave. "I walked over to Soundwave to ask what he doing. It was then I put my hand on Soundwave's shoulder. I felt a painful electric shock, and for a split second the motor circuits in my lower body shut off and I began to fall forward. I reached out my hand to steady myself and I too touched the door. The symbols glowed brighter and then very slowly the door began to open."

"Yes, yes and?" By then Megatron was thoroughly intrigued by this story.

"We lost consciousness." Soundwave answered gravely.

"Ah." Megatron said with a slightly disappointed tone to his voice. "Did anyone see you?"

"Negative, who else, but Shockwave and I enter the museum on the week's end."

"Good point."

"But the strangest thing was." Shockwave wearily continued the story. "During our unconsciousness both Soundwave and I had the same vision."

"Which was?" Megatron's interest perked up again.

"We saw a creature with five faces…"

_Well there you have it chapter 8 up and running. Thanks again for all of your reviews and again keep them coming, make suggestions, tell me what you would like to see and how I'm doing on character portrayals._

_Now, HotShot94 asked me what the ages the Transformers are in human years. Here they are:_

_Shockwave: 22_

_Soundwave: 22_

_Megatron: 21_

_Astrotrain: 20_

_Blitzwing: 20_

Thundercracker: 19

_Skywarp: 19_

_Thrust: 19_

_Dirge: 19_

_Ramjet: 19_

_Starscream: 18_

_Till next time! See ya'!_


	9. Distraction and Destruction

_Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me._

**When We Were Young **

**Chapter 8 –Distractions and Destruction**

A Decepticon by the name of Airstrike was the instructor for the Enemy Anatomy class. He was probably the most disliked of the teachers in the Academy, because of his sarcastic ways of talking down to the students as if they had just been created. Primus, they hated that!

In the front row of desks sat Thundercracker, Starscream, Skywarp and Octane. Behind them sat Thrust, Ramjet, and Dirge. In the third row were Shrapnel, Bombshell, and Kickback, and in the final row were Blitzwing, Runabout and Runamuck. Next to Blitzwing was an empty desk, where Astrotrain should have been.

Thundercracker sighed and looked out the classroom window. He was supposed to be taking notes on the best ways to kill an Autobot when you're fighting hand to hand, but he just couldn't concentrate. His optics flitted over to the skirmish field where the different combat classes would practice battle scenarios, hit targets and, for the leadership class, getting soldiers to follow and take orders. Every few weeks the combat classes would get mixed together into teams and fight in a mock battle.

However, though his optics were on the skirmish fields, Thundercracker's mind was not. His optics and audio receptors were shut off to the outside world, and focused in on one memory of yesterday.

Flashback

Thundercracker stared up at the sky a little longer while the other students, with the exception of Blitzwing and Megatron, walked back into the Aerial House. Eventually the blue seeker turned and began to walk back.

"Hey, Cracker!" Blitzwing's voice was lower than usual. He held up a small pack of disks over his shoulder.

"Astrotrain wasn't sure if he would see ya' before he left, so he wanted me to give ya' these."

Thundercracker took the disks and looked at the labels Astrotrain must have put on them. 'Fiction,' 'Songs,' 'Journal/Thoughts,' 'Housemates/Comrades.'

"Astrotrain's writings." Thundercracker's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, a bunch of sentimental crap that should be taken out and burned!" Blitzwing spat angrily.

Thundercracker felt his anger flare. It was bad enough Astrotrain was going off to war with the possibility of not coming back, but to hear Blitzwing insulting him was more than Thundercracker could bear.

"What the hell is your malfunction? He's your best friend! Your comrade in all of those stupid pranks you pulled! He stood by you all of those times you got in trouble! Now he's gone off to war and he might not come back!"

Blitzwing still had his back turned to Thundercracker. The enraged seeker felt his fury grow even more. All of the anger and sorrow that he'd held bottled up inside through the entirety of the day's events was now spilling out.

"Don't you get it? Don't you understand!" Thundercracker shouted at the top of his air intake valves. He held up the disks. "These may be all we have left of him! And you with all of your stupid conceit and self-importance, you don't even care! In fact you want to destroy him! How dare you---!"

THWACK!

Blitzwing's fist connected with Thundercracker's jaw.

The sudden impact of the Triple-Changer's attack caught Thundercracker off-guard and sent him crashing to the ground. But Blitzwing was not finished yet. He grabbed the dazed Thundercracker by his wings and pulled him into a headlock.

"What do ya' know about me! HUH? You think you're so damned smart, so perfect! You don't know anything!" Blitzwing's grip tightened. "Don't ever judge me!"

"Blitz I…" Thundercracker choked out.

"_EVER!_"

"Let him go Blitzwing!"

"Primus dammit Megatron! Get the hell away from me!"

"No." Megatron's voice was calm, but angry. " And need I remind you that the seeker you are attempting to crush is the goalkeeper the War Ball Team is going to need in the championship in three weeks time!"

It was then Blitzwing felt like he had been jolted out of recharge. Megatron was right. Blitzwing let go of Thundercracker. Then turned to Megatron.

"Why are you so Primus damned tender hearted all of a sudden?" Blitzwing spat.

"I'm not. I don't care what Decepticons do to each other as long as it doesn't get in the way of victory. And an attempt to strangle our prime goalkeeper counts as such, for the championship."

Blitzwing growled. "Who malfunctioned and made you captain! If you think your gonna take Astrotrain's place---"

"I never said that!"

"You never will! I'll make sure of that!" Blitzwing spat as he stormed back toward the Arial House, brushing past a very shocked Skywarp, Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge.

Megatron looked as if he was about to say something, but decided not to. Instead he turned back to Thundercracker.

"Are you functioning Thundercracker?"

_Thundercracker…?_

_**Thundercracker…?**_

End Flashback

"**_Thundercracker!_** Pay attention!"

Startled out of his thoughts, Thundercracker snapped his head forward and found himself face to face with Airstrike.

"May I ask what is outside that you find more interesting than what I am talking about?" Airstrike's voice was low and irritated.

Thundercracker's fuel pump felt like it was racing at a million miles per hour and the snickering of his fellow students, including Skywarp, and snickers Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback in particular, were making it worse.

Airstrike backed a couple of steps away from Thundercracker's desk.

"Stand up!" he commanded.

Thundercracker obeyed with out hesitation, he stood straight up with his head bowed slightly.

"I would like to know what has you so _distracted_."

"Astrotrain, was called off to the frontlines sir."

"You sound disappointed, you should be proud that Astrotrain was called to actively take part in our noble cause."

"Yes sir. It's just that he is one of my friends and I fear he will not come back."

"Ah I see. Well if he obeys orders, and shows no cowardice---"

"Astrotrain is no coward!" A voice from the back of the room raged.

Everyone turned to see Blitzwing standing next to his desk, fists clenched.

"I have not spoken to you Blitzwing! SIT DOWN!" Airstrike boomed.

"I am sick and tired of bein' ordered around by everyone! Everyone thinkin' they're so much smarter than me! Taking everything!" Blitzwing screamed as he walked down the aisle of desks toward Airstrike.

"Blitzwing take your seat now and I will overlook this mutinous behavior!"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Blitzwing---!"

"SHUT UP!"

With that Blitzwing lunged towards Airstrike, wrapped his hands around Airstrike's neck and began to strangle the very surprised teacher…

_HA! Didn't see that coming, did you? Well, maybe you did._

_I am so sorry for the long wait guys. I've been so busy registering for my classes in college, taking Precalculus, and doing my Medical Terminology homework, I've hardly had time to work on my Fanfiction. Plus I have two other stories in the mix._

_Anyway, I wanted to have Blitzwing use some stronger language when he was in an outrage, but then I would have to raise the rating on my story and I didn't want to do that. Also, some people have been wondering why Starscream has been acting so out of character. It's because at this stage in his life, he has yet to develop into the character we know him in the show. Don't worry he develops later on in this story._

_Just keep reading. And keep those reviews coming! Give me your opinions, I want to make this story the best it can be! Till next time!_


	10. Crime and Punishment

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

_Note: I know there is a series called Transformers: Headmasters, and I just want to clarify things in my story. The Headmaster in this story is not that kind of Headmaster, he is not binary bonded to any Nebulans. I'm sure you all assumed that, but I just wanted to make that clear. Also, the character Mindwipe is not binary bonded to any Nebulans either._ _Ok, one more thing, a couple of people suggested I use Death's Head as the caretaker for the Aerial House. So now Death's-Head will make cameo appearances as the Aerial House Caretaker. If you have any complaints about that please let me know before I post the next chapter. Now on with the story!_

**When We Where Young **

**Chapter9 – Crime and Punishment**

_Sharp Teeth… _

_Five faces… _

Soundwave jolted awake…

He leaned against one of the walls of the metal cell he was being kept in until the Headmaster decided what to do with him. He leaned back as far as he could, however having his hands shackled behind his back made it difficult. After settling himself his mind wandered back to what might be in store for him.

He didn't regret trying to strangle Airstrike. Not one bit. To the contrary, he relished the feeling of his victim's throat slowly being crushed between his hands. However, he had been caught and now he had to pay the price.

Would it be mercy, death, or reprogramming?

He felt a small shudder run through his body at the last thought.

For the first time in his life, Blitzwing was truly afraid. Afraid of being brainwashed and reprogrammed, of losing himself, of walking up to Astrotrain and not knowing who his best friend was.

The door to his cell opened and two very husky and heavily armed transformers entered. They roughly hoisted Blitzwing to his feet and escorted him towards the Headmaster's office. Blitzwing might have put up more of a defiant stance, but he was still recovering from the residual effects of being electrocuted and null rayed, courtesy of Shrapnel and Starscream. So he had no choice, but to follow the guards to his fate.

I'm sorry Astro, I didn't mean to be angry with you when you left, please be safe…

Heavens War raised the perfectly balanced bladed staff above his head then brought it down, stopping when the blade was mere inches from the ground. He then swung it up and attacked the air to his left. He spun around and held the bladed staff straight out in front of him.

"Ah, a little mock sparring does wonders to relieve one's tense cranial circuits."

Heavens War sighed to himself, lowered one end of the staff to the ground and gently leaned on it, thinking…

'My visions have never been wrong before. Will it open? Are they ready? Indeed, am I ready? I don't know…'

"Heavens War!"

"Yes, what is it Mindwipe?" Heavens War straightened up.

"One of Airstrike's students attacked him. The student has been apprehended and is awaiting your judgment." For the words he was speaking, Mindwipe was quite calm.

Heavens War and Mindwipe began to walk back towards the Academy.

"What methods of punishment have been suggested already?" Heavens War's voice was low and weary.

"Well, Airstrike and I say he should be strapped down and reprogrammed, but that's neither here nor there. It's your decision." Mindwipe stated firmly.

"Yes. Tell me, do you know the student's name?"

"It's Blitzwing I believe."

"Blitzwing… Wasn't that the student I grounded for pulling that prank a week ago?"

"Hmmm… I think so." Noticing the drained tone of Heavens War's vocalizers, Mindwipe's own cold manner soften slightly and he asked with some genuine concern. "You sound dreadfully tired. Are you all right?"

"One of my visions has put me on high alert, and being in a constant state of stress tends to drain one's energon at a fearsome rate."

"I can imagine."

"So, what course should I take?" Heavens War whispered, more to himself rather than Mindwipe.

"Pardon?"

"Blitzwing…"

"Oh. Do you intend to use **_that_** on him?" Mindwipe chuckled.

"Huh?" Heaven's War looked down at the bladed staff in his right hand. "Heh. I forgot I was carrying this."

"You may need it."

"You may be right…"

"What's your name cadet?"

"Blitz…Blitzwing, sir."

The young Triple-Changer was barely able to speak. Even from behind his desk, the Headmaster was an intimidating figure. Had he been standing at full height, he would have been about a head taller than Blitzwing. He had an combination of black and white coloring, with a little bit of blue and purple thrown in every which way and a pair of wings that any any aerial Transformer would kill for.

Airstrike and Mindwipe stood on either side of the Headmaster's desk. Airstrike looked as if he wanted to rip out Blitzwing's cranial circuits right then and there.

"Why did you attack Airstrike?" the Headmaster spoke in firm, but calm voice.

"I…I…I was angry sir."

"You were angry! What kind of reason is that? You attacked me just because you felt like it! You----"

"Silence Airstrike!" The Headmaster commanded loudly, however the calm in his voice remained. "Leave us. All of you."

"Heave---Headmaster? Are you sure that's wise?" Mindwipe looked at the Headmaster in surprise.

"Leave."

Airstrike, Mindwipe, and the two guards detaining Blitzwing swiftly exited the room.

Blitzwing stood in silence, hands still shackled, optics cast towards the ground.

What now?

As his confusion grew, so did his apprehension.

The Headmaster studied Blitzwing for a few more seconds then slowly stood up, bladed staff in hand.

Blitzwing bowed his head as the Headmaster walked up to him. Even without making optic contact, he could feel the Headmaster's gaze tearing into him. He'd never been in a one-on-one session with the Headmaster. Sure, he'd been yelled at by him for pulling school pranks, but he was almost always with either Astrotrain or his fellow prank accomplices, never alone and never for trying to murder one of his teachers.

_What's the Headmaster really like? _

The light in the room shimmered off the blades of the staff.

_Is he really going to use that thing? _

The Headmaster put the flat side of the blade under Blitzwing's chin and slowly tilted the young Decepticon's face up to his own.

The Headmaster had the most intense optics Blitzwing had ever seen.

And yet…

For all of their intensity, Blitzwing saw that there was no trace of hate or malice in them.

"Now tell me," the Headmaster spoke finally as he lifted the the blade away from Blitzwing's face. "In your own words, why did you attack Airstrike?"

"I…He…He called Astrotrain a coward!"

"I see."

"And…" Anger rose in Blitzwing's voice. "I told him to stop ordering me around! He wouldn't stop! He wouldn't listen! Nobody listens! I'm tired of it! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

SMACK!

The Headmaster slapped Blitzwing across the face.

"You need to learn to control your temper when you are off the field of battle!" It was more of a command than a suggestion.

Blitzwing remained silent.

"Look at me." The Headmaster's voice was stern, but not angry. "You see Blitzwing, there are three kinds of transformers who make certain contributions of effort to our cause. The strong make many, the reprogrammed make few and the dead make none. To destroy or reprogram you would be a waste of a potentially strong individual who can contribute greatly to the cause. However, your "Fuellust" outside of the battlefield is a threat to your fellow Decepticons. If your temper cannot be controlled and you use on your comrades and superiors, they will be unable to make their own contributions to our cause. Do you understand?"

The memory of almost strangling Thundercracker, the most valuable player of the War Ball team, flashed through Blitzwing's memory. He nodded in response to the Headmaster's speech. "Yes I understand."

"Good." The Headmaster half smiled. "Now thinking on that, and over what you have done, what do _**you** _think is the best punishment for yourself?"

Blitzwing's optic band widened in disbelief.

"Of course it will have to meet my approval, but what do suggest for yourself, Blitzwing?"

"I…I…"

_I know, I know. I'm evil and malicious to leave the chapter off like this, but I had to leave it suspenseful to make you guys want more. Don't worry my schedule is clearing up, and my goal is to have the next chapter up by Sunday. And for you Megatron and Starscream fans out there, don't worry, the spotlight is going to shift to each one them soon. Oh and Soundwave is going to play an important role as well. Remember, keep those reviews coming I want your opinion on how I'm doing. Believe me some reviews can sometimes make a great impact on this story. In the original version of this story, I didn't have Thundercracker yell at Blitzwing, or Blitzwing attempt to strangle Thundercracker and Airstrike. It was **Agent A. T. **who wrote a review saying I was making the Decepticons too soft, and I realized he was right, particularly for what I have in mind in later chapters. So, after a long thought process, Chapters 9 and 10 came to be as you see them now._

_Also, plain excitement reviews don't hurt either. _

_**Final Note:** If anyone has any complaints about me having Death's Head make cameo appearances as the caretaker of the Aerial House, please let me know before I post the next chapter._

_Vega Sailor_


	11. Music to the Audios

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

When We Where Young 

Chapter 11 – Music to the Audios

"I…I…." Blitzwing stammered.

The Headmaster when around behind Blitzwing and gently removed the shackles that had bound Blitzwing's hands together. The young triple-changer brought his hands forward and absently rubs his wrists. 

"Could I have some time to think about this?"

"Very well. You have two days. I'll have the authorities escort you back to your house, however you are not to leave there for any activities with the exception of classes. Do you understand?" The Headmaster's calm tone had not changed.

"You're sending me back to the House?" Blitzwing's surprise was evident.

"Would you prefer a cell?" A slight smile tugged at the corner of the Headmaster's mouth.

"No! No! The Arial House is just fine!" 

******************************************

"Hey, guys! Wait up!" Starscream called after his fellow seekers in the school hallway.

"Hey, Screamer!" Skywarp called cheerfully, while Thundercracker smiled slightly.

"So whatever happened to Blitzwing?" Starscream asked with some concern.

"We don't know," Skywarp shrugged his shoulders, "We haven't seen him since you used your null ray on him and the academy authorities dragged him off yesterday."

"Oh, yeah." Starscream turned his optics to the ground as he walked. "Does everybody think I'm a teacher's pet now?"

"No," Skywarp smirked. " They're thinking, 'wow I guess I better think twice about messing with the squeaky voiced scientist!'"

Starscream and Thundercracker chuckled, but then the blue seeker's face became serious state. "No matter what they decide to do with Blitzwing, after all he's done they won't let him come back to the War Ball team. So we've got less than two weeks to find a replacement.

"Well," Starscream began. "What about me?"

The other two seekers turned to Starscream in surprise. "You? But---"

"Did we hear truthfully that there is an opening in the Metal War Ball team?"

The three seekers turned to see Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback. Skywarp and Starscream were quite taken aback when they heard Thundercracker emit a low growl and turned his back on Bombshell, Kickback and Shrapnel. 

Shrapnel continued. "Perhaps one of could fill the place Blitzwing so foolishly gave up---"

BAM!

Thundercracker whirled around and punched shrapnel right between the optics.

"YOU NEVER WILL! I'D RATHER HAVE PETRO-RABBITS ON MY TEAM THAN YOU!" Thundercracker screamed at the top of his air intake valves. 

Shrapnel let go a half shocked, half enraged snarl as Thundercracker stormed down the hallway and out the main door. All of the students in the hallway burst out laughing.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! You guys got busted!" Octane laughed as Bombshell and Kickback helped Shrapnel to his feet. Thundercracker stomped out the main door and into the courtyard. Good thing it was break period, he needed some time to cool off before going through another round of classes that day.  At least Arial Combat and Weaponry were next. He could blow off some sparks in the target range.

"Hey TC, you okay?" Skywarp tied to ask with concern, but he was fighting a laugh from the memory of the fallen Shrapnel.

"Yes……No……Just……Just leave me alone! I need some time to think. I'm going for a walk."

" TC, are you sure----?"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!"

Thundercracker marched off toward the War Ball training field.

"What's up his tailpipe?"

*****************************************************

As Thundercracker approached the War Ball field, his audio receptors began to pick up strange sounds coming from the field. As he drew closer he identified the sounds as a form of music, but who? He didn't recognize the tune. Upon arriving at one end of the field he noticed another transformer at the other end. The music was coming from him.

The other transformer was lying down on his back looking up at the sky and something small and black was sitting next to him. Upon seeing Thundercracker, the black thing jumped to its feet and snarled. Thundercracker stopped dead in his tracks.

'I really don't need this right now," Thundercracker thought, " Uh….Nice panzer, I'm not in mood for a fight." 

The transformer who had been lying down, sat up. It was Soundwave. "At ease Ravage. Thundercracker ally."

Ravage stopped growling.

"Um thanks." Thundercracker absently rubbed the back of his head. "Why were you lying on the ground, and here of all places?"

"When practice not in session. It is quiet." Soundwave gave Ravage a pat on the head.

"Who composed the tune you were playing?"

"Composition made by me."

"You?! You composed that?!"

"Why are you surprised?"

"Well…It's just that….You never seemed like the artistic type."

"Sounds are fascinating. I mix them together."

"Hmmmmm… Y'know that last tune would go good with one of Astrotrain's songs."

"Astrotrain?"

"Yeah." Thundercracker sat down on the ground next to Soundwave. "He hides his ability because….well let's just say the other guys don't appreciate art."

"You discovered him?"

Thundercracker sighed inwardly and looked up at the sky. "One day I kind of walked in on Astrotrain when he was reciting on of his songs. I asked him about his writing and he answered that he really didn't know where his creativity came from, just that words popped into his head and he had to write them down. His stuff is really  good, that's what separates him from the other triple-changers and transport vehicles in general. And I---"

Suddenly Thundercracker seemed to realize that he was spilling his circuits to some one he barely knew, particularly someone who was designed to get confessions and then use them against the confessor.

"Listen up Soundwave!" Thundercracker's calm voice suddenly became harsh and angry. "If you playback one word of this conversation you're gonna be wearing you vocalizer cords for a necklace! Does that compute!?"

"Affirmative. No recording was made. Only Ravage cassette and rhythmic sounds cassette are here."

Soundwave paused for a moment then asked.

"Permission to see writings."

A look of surprise crossed Thundercracker's face.

"for the rhythmic Sounds." Soundwave continued

"Rhythmic sounds? Oh, the music. Right." Thundercracker felt a little embarrassed at not knowing immediately what Soundwave meant by "Rhythmic Sounds." 

"Um…" Thundercracker mentally debated over whether or not to let Soundwave see the writings. It was Astrotrain's work and he didn't know if Astrotrain wanted anyone to see. Then again, according to Blitzwing, Astrotrain had entrusted the writings to him. Also, if Soundwave really did compose that beautiful melody, then being a fellow artist Soundwave would not mock Astrotrain's own compositions.

Thundercracker pulled his laptop out of subspace, accessed the file he wanted, then handed it to Soundwave.

Soundwave looked over the words.

"Rhythmic Sounds selected. However, a voice is required."

"Huh?"

"Your voice would have good harmony with selected rhythmic sounds."

"My voice?!" Thundercracker could not hide the surprise on his face.

Suddenly they both could hear a chiming in their heads, indicating that it was about five minutes till class time. 

Soundwave stood up then turned back to Thundercracker.

"If you wish me to record your voice for the rhythmic sounds. Come to Maxima's house. Starscream is your friend, Megatron will understand, and Shockwave could careless. As for Maxima and myself, anytime between end of classes and scheduled recharge time is acceptable. If you do not, that is your decision."

Without another word Soundwave walked back toward the Academy with Ravage trotting at his heal…

************************************************

I know this is kind of an awkward place to leave this chapter off but I felt it was right. Chapter 12 is basically a continuation of this one, however didn't want to cram a lot of important information into chapter 11, so I thought I would spread it out. Don't worry chapter 12 should be up by Saturday at the latest.

Vega Sailor


	12. Guns and Songs

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

Special Disclaimer: This is sort of a Songchapter towards the end. The song for Astrotrain's writing, is Linkin Park's "Faint", it's one of my favorite songs and I thought it would fit perfectly for the young Decepticons. Also, the inspiration for Astrotrain being a writer came from a fanfic called "**Soliloquy**" on www.lexicon.tf . It's definitely worth a look.

When We Where Young 

Chapter 12 – Guns and Songs

For the rest of the day Soundwave reflected on the song Astrotrain had written and a melody he had composed a couple of days ago. He also wondered whether Thundercracker would show up after school. He hoped so. Thundercracker's voice, would be perfect for the new song.  

"Soundwave are you paying attention?" His instructor Spyglass raised an optic at him.

"Affirmative. Simulated security system has been decoded and hacked."

"Oh well good. Go ahead and start on the next assignment."

*******************************************************

"Hey Megatron!"

"Megs!"

Megatron and Starscream turned to see Thundercracker and Skywarp running toward them.

"What's Up? Oh and Skywarp don't ever call me "Megs" again." Megatron cheerfully greeted the two seekers.

"Well, the Blitzwing situation is unclear. However our caretaker, Death's Head, may know something more, but if he doesn't, then the whole team needs to be there to decide on a replacement." Thundercracker said gravely.

"Of course." Megatron followed Thundercracker and Skywarp followed after them.

Starscream felt a twinge of anger rise. His friends had not invited him along.

*******************************************************

"So who exactly is this 'Death's Head' fellow?" Megatron asked and turned to Skywarp since Thundercracker looked a little down in the junkyard.

"Well, he used to be a bounty hunter or something, but apparently the Headmaster saw fit to hire him to look after us. Beyond that all I know it that he got a lot of really cool weapons and an equally cool story behind each one of them." Skywarp answered cheerfully.

"Hm. A freelance bounty hunter seems an odd choice for a House caretaker." Megatron raised a questioning optic.

"Actually it makes perfect sense." Megatron and Skywarp looked at Thundercracker. "Well, think about it. You've got Blitzwing, Octane, Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge running around. Personally I think the Headmaster made the right choice. Oh and um let's not forget he also has to deal with my hyperactive brother over there."

Thundercracker smiled slightly.

"Hey TC! That's the first time I've seen ya' crack smile since Astrotrain left!" Skywarp's returning smile was bright and genuine. Though he'd never admit it, Thundercracker's lack of spark had really concerned Skywarp.

"Meh. Wounds heal." Thundercracker's smile faded slightly.

"Hey Megatron! Got any strategy ideas for the Metal War Ball Championship Tournament?" Skywarp hoped a change of subject would brighten Thundercracker's smile up or a at least keep it from fading more.

"Have I been voted to be team captain?" Megatron was barely able to suppress a feeling of victory.

"Well, with Astrotrain gone, Thundercracker having enough to concentrate on, and Blitzwing….primus knows what happened to him, you're the only one left with the brains to run this operation."

"Thanks." Megatron said in a half sarcastic tone. 'Hey whatever works."

The three continued their walk back to the Arial House. 

"hmm. I wonder who they are." Said Thundercracker looking across the street. Megatron and Skywarp followed his gaze.

They saw the Headmaster, followed by six transformers they didn't know. One of them was talking to the Headmaster, while the five others hung back and talked amongst themselves.

Megatron, Thundercracker and Skywarp turned up they're audio receptors so that they could hear the new bot's conversations. Suddenly two of the new guys began to shout at each other.

"I'll take your perfectionist slag and shove it right up your tailpipe!"

"I'd like to see you try! I could take you down in a micro second!"

"You and what army ya' overscrewed twit!"

The two arguing ones proceed to try and strangle each other, while two others make bets on who will win and a third looks on in excitement.

"Hey Longhaul! Two energon goodies says Hook takes Bonecrusher."

"I'll take that one Scavenger!"

"Wow! Hook vs. Bonecrusher again! Whatta fight! Whatta fight! Whatta fight!"

"Whoa, ease down there Mixmaster." The one named Longhaul spoke.

Unfortunately for the spectators, the fight never reached completion due to the fact the transformer who had been talking to the Headmaster only moments before, rushed to stop the two combatants.

"Stop it! Both of you!"

The ones named Bonecrusher and Hook immediately froze. Hook was on his back on the ground, but he had Bonecrusher in a headlock. Meanwhile, Bonecrusher was taking a big bite out of Hook's arm. The other transformer, whose name was not known yet, continued to speak.

"The Headmaster is standing right there! Please don't embarrass us all!"

The to fighters immediately pulled apart and stood to attention.

"We sorry Scrapper." The one named actually Hook looked sincere.

" W-We just got a little carried away, that's all." The one named Bonecrusher looked sincere too.

The one named Scrapper turned back to the Headmaster.

"I apologize Headmaster they don't usually act like this, they---"

"I'm sure it's just the excitement of being in a new place that has them all riled up." The Headmaster spoke in a calm almost amused voce, but then it changed to serious. "But for their own sakes they best keep things under control."

"Of course Headmaster." Scrapper saluted.

"We shall be the perfection of behavior." Hook announced.

" You won't see a bit of trouble from us." Bonecrusher smirked.

"Not a speck." Scavenger added.

"We'll follow the rules." Longhaul chimed in.

"We will! We will! We will!" Finished Mixmaster.

With that the Headmaster and the rest of the crew continued on down the street.

"Well it looks like we have some new classmates." A mischievous smile spread across Skywarp's face. 

"Oh Primus no Skywarp, at the very least not until after the Championship Tournament." Thundercracker groans.

"awwww. Relax TC I won't try nothin'. **For now anyway**."

They arrive at the Arial House and walk inside. In the entertainment room Octane, Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge are sitting on the couches and have their optics glued to the giant television screen.

"Hey, Megatron, Cracker, Warp. Sit down and watch." Thrust waved to them.

"What are we watchin'?" Skywarp landed on the couch next to Octane.

"A War Ball game on Nebula." Dirge answered.

"Aw, I can't wait to start busting some Nebulan butt!" Shouted Ramjet.

"Neither can I, this tournament should be an interesting experience." Megatron smiled.

"Does Death's Head know anything about Blitzwing?"

"We don't know he wasn't here when we got back." Thrust answered not taking his optics away from the TV screen.

"I wish I was going to the tournament." Octane stated in an over exaggerated whiny voice. "Why'd you all have to go and kick me off the team."

"Well I can list several reasons." Skywarp pointed at him. "You're a jerk and my bother is smarter, faster and better looking than you!"

"Watch it!" Octane grabbed Skywarp by the throat.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! If you want to have a fight you will take it outside, yes?"

The entertainment room's occupants turned to see Death's Head standing in the doorway. But what surprised them was that Blitzwing was standing right behind him.

The Triple-Changer opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again, and made quickly for the hallway adjacent to the entertainment room. The one that led to the student's rooms. When the others occupying the entertainment room recovered from the shock of seeing Blitzwing again they gathered around the caretaker to gently enquire what happened.

"What happened to Blitzwing?!"

"Well, he---"

"What did the Headmaster say?!"

"The Headmaster----"

"Is he gonna play in the tournament?!"

"I don't---

"Has he been punished yet?!"

"No, but---"

"Is Blitzwing going to get smelted?!"

"No, he---"

"Reprogrammed?!"

"Why is he back?!" 

"Will he stay?!"

"Is there going to be a trial?!"

"What are the charges?!"

"Is Airstrike dead?!"

"Do you think so?!"

"Why don't you answer us?!"

"What time is it?!"

Death's Head could see that with all of the current questions and rambling, he was gonna get nowhere with these kids if he kept up the current state of trying to answer them. So, decided to try something different. He took out his Shott Blaster Rifle, aimed it at the wall and proceeded to pull the trigger.

BOOM!

"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!!!!"

The students glanced at the now huge hole in the wall then quickly complied with Death's Head's order.

In fact Skywarp plopped down the spot on the floor where he had been standing. Megatron took seat on the arm of the couch next to Thundercracker. Even he had been a little startled with Death's Head's sudden outburst.

"Now I will answer your questions as long as you listen, yes?"

"Yes." All of the students replied.

"Anyone would listen to a nutcase with a gun in his hand," whispered Thrust to Dirge and Ramjet.

"I heard that." Death's Head's voice was low and dangerous. 

Thrust could see the big trouble he was in and quickly tried to gain some mercy. "Forgive me! In didn't mean it! I'm sorry!"

"Good. You will be forgiven, if you do one favor for me, yes?"

"Yeah, what?"

"Repair the hole in the wall."

"Yes sir." Thrust whined dejectedly.

"HA! HA! HA!" Octane, Ramjet and Dirge nearly fell over laughing at Thrust's predicament.

"In fact," Death's Head watched the laughing trio, " the work would go faster if you helped him."

"What?! But---" Death's Head gave them an angry glare.

"Yes, sir." The four condemned walked off to get the necessary supplies.

"Would anyone else like to "help" them, yes?"

"No." Skywarp squeaked out, Megatron and Thundercracker remained perfectly silent.

"Now the Blitzwing situation goes as follows. The Headmaster didn't say much to me just that Blitzwing had two days to decide on his punishment. As far playing on the team… Well, I think you'd better plan on finding a replacement."

"Damn! Why does this have to happen now, so close to the championship, we can't lose this year! We just can't!" Skywarp stomped out of the room and headed for his own.

"Well," Megatron sighed, "So much for the team meeting. I guess I'll just head home."

"Could I join you?" Thundercracker asked tiredly. "There's too much going on right here that I feel ready to deal with."

"Yeah, sure." Megatron and Thundercracker headed for the door.

"See you boys later." Death's Head watched them go. But they were not the only ones outside that held his attention. Directly across the street talking to six new students was the Headmaster.

Perhaps Blitzwing's fate was not sealed just yet.

**********************************************************

Starscream swung the sword and attacked the air again.

'Why am I so angry?'

He spun and stabbed.

'I'm sure there was a reason why they didn't invite me.'

_They hate me._

Starscream hit the ground with the sword.

'No. No that's right. They're my friends.'

_They think I'm weak._

'No they don't, do they?'

_They shun me. _

'No! It's not true. Why am I thinking this way?! These are my friends! Not my enemies'

Starscream dropped the sword completely.

'Then again, maybe ---'

"What's the matter with you now Starscream?"

Starscream spun to see Shockwave standing in the entranceway to the training courtyard behind Maxima's House.

"None of your business Shockwave!" Starscream shouted, surprised by the anger in his voice. 

"Fine! Wallow in your characteristic self-pity! " Shockwave shouted back, then stomped away, not taking any notice that Megatron and Thundercracker had entered the building, muttering, "this is why I stick to cold logic."

Megatron, slightly confused, turned to Starscream. "What's a matter with Shockwave?"

"Oh nothing,'" Starscream answered in a tired voice. "Hey, Thundercracker."

Thundercracker smiled back. "Hey, how ya doin'?"

"Meh. I'm all right." Starscream said in the same voice.

"Is Soundwave around?" Thundercracker asked. "He wanted to record my voice, so I thought since I'm here. Why not?"

"Good. Composition completed." The three turned to see Soundwave with Ravage standing next to him. 

The blue cassette deck motioned for Thundercracker to follow, but before the seeker could take a step they heard the doorbell ring. Maxima opened the door.

"Oh, greetings Headmaster." She said.

"Greetings, I'm afraid I have one more student for you to care for." The Headmaster motioned to the youth standing next to him. "This is Scrapper. He is the chosen leader of his combiner team, the Constructicons. However, we want to see how leader and crew cope with not being together 24/7. Don't worry Scrapper, I told you it's only temporary. And I'll add, that every combiner team has had to do this."

"Ah, the old "separation" time." Maxima smiled. "Come on in Scrapper, I'll introduce you to the rest of your housemates."

The Headmaster departed, and Maxima lead Scrapper to the courtyard where she'd seen the boys gather earlier.

"Oh down that hallway, the fourth door on the left is the room you'll be in." She pointed out.

"Yes, ma'm." Scrapper answered quickly.

"Boys," said Maxima as she walked out into the courtyard. "This is our new housemate, Scrapper. He'll be staying with us for only a short time, but he is still our housemate non the less."

"Scrapper this Megatron."

"Hello Scrapper." Megatron greeted him.

"Starscream."

"Hi." Starscream smiled.

"Soundwave."

Soundwave calmly nodded in Scrapper's direction.

Just then Shockwave walked into the courtyard.

"That is Shockwave."

"Greetings." Shockwave's voice was emotionless.

"And this is Thundercracker, he's a guest from the Arial House."

"Nice to meet you Scrapper."

"Thank you all." Scrapper was clearly terrified. "Um, with all due respect, I…I would like to retire to my room, and…um…build something."

With that Scrapper scurried off as fast a he could.

Soundwave turned to Thundercracker. "Shall we proceed?"

"Oh yeah." Thundercracker followed Soundwave, and Shockwave departed for his room.

"So how are the moves I showed you coming along, Starscream." Megatron asked the Seeker.

"Oh great!" Starscream answered quickly.

Megatron smirked and walked over the weapons case and pulled out his favorite sword.

"Show me…"

*****************************************************

Thundercracker couldn't stop marveling at Soundwave's room. The prevailing color scheme was dark blue and deep green lighting from an indistinct source, combined with the dark gray metal walls, the whole room gave off a nice calm feeling. But what amazed Thundercracker most, were the three keyboards and a disc spinner all hooked up to computers, and the enormous sound system that covered one whole wall of the room. Yet even with all of this packed in, the room still had a sense of order and cleanliness. 

"Wow." Was all that Thundercracker could manage to say.

Soundwave meanwhile was setting up a microphone to about Thundercracker's height. After he had finished he took a seat behind the three massive keyboards and disc spinner.

"So, just how many sounds do you have recorded on there?"

"Thousands. Some have been refined, some have not."

"So uh. What do you want me to do?"

"Do the voices into the microphone."

"Um, could I hear the music first?" Thundercracker walked over the microphone.

"Of course, I have already recorded Starscream's voice for the chorus."

"What!? When?!"

"Before you arrived. A higher pitch voice was required for the chorus. Starscream's mood fit the words."

"Are you sure? Starscream?"

"Positive. Listen."

Soundwave played the music. Thundercracker was once again amazed, Starscream's voice was belting out and screaming, but it fit. It fit the words and the music perfectly. And the music itself was wonderful. 

"Are you ready?" Soundwave startle Thundercracker out of his music daze.

"Yeah, I think so…"

*************************************

Starscream landed hard on the ground. Megatron stood victoriously over him.

"I really suck at this." Starscream groaned, not even bothering to get up.

"Oh, quit griping, you're getting much better. Remember you couldn't even hold a sword properly a week ago."

"That's true." With that little ego boost, Starscream found the will to stand up.

"Do you hear music?" Megatron raised an optic brow at Starscream.

"Yeah, it sounds like the song Soundwave recorded my voice for a while ago. He must be adding Thundercracker for the verses."

"A Song?" Megatron looked even more confused.

"Yeah, it's one of the few things Soundwave does that's cool. And I sound great!"
    
    Thundercracker: Watching you turn your back like you always do.
    
    _That's how I felt today._ Thought Starscream.
    
    Thundercracker: Face away and pretend that I'm not, but I'll be here 'cause you're all that I got
    
    _They are all I've got._
    
    Starscream's Voice: I can't feel. The way I did before. Don't turn your back on me.
    
    _That is my voice, how I felt._
    
    Starscream's Voice: I won't be ignored!
    
    _No. I will not be ignored!_
    
    "Hey Starscream are you ok?" Megatron's voice broke Starscream's train of thought.
    
    "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I just got absorbed in the music, that's all." Starscream said nervously.
    
    "Right…. Ok, shall we continue?" Megatron said.
    
    "Sure." Starscream smirked.

******************************************

A few hours later…

Soundwave was showing Thundercracker to the door.

"I shall send the music to Astrotrain tomorrow."

"Great! It might cheer him up a little bit at the frontlines."

Soundwave stared apprehensively at the empty streets. It was late, nearly curfew time. However, it wasn't that thought that caused Soundwave's apprehension, there was just a bad feeling in the air, a feeling of foreboding. 

"Thundercracker!"

"Hmmm?" Thundercracker was beginning to walk away

"Maybe you should not go alone."

"What? What are you talking about?" Thundercracker chuckled.

"There is danger. Megatron and Starscream should accompany you."

"Soundwave, I am a warrior and I have some pride. Come on everything's going to be fine." Thundercracker walked down the street toward the Arial House.

Soundwave watched Thundercracker go for a moment then pressed the eject button. Ravage came out.

"Follow him…"

*********************************************

I really must apologize to you all. I know I said I would have this by Saturday, but a family crisis came up and I couldn't. So here I typed up a nice long chapter for you to enjoy. I hope you don't hate me for using Linkin Park, but the song just fit so perfectly. Anyway, about the Constructicons being here, even though I hated the episode "The Secret of Omega Supreme," I liked the premise of the Constructicons being built on Cybertron rather than earth. However, I have an idea in this story for it to work both ways. Oh and for those of you who believe Scrapper was acting a little OOC and wimpy. That'll get explained later. And as always keep those reviews and opinions coming.

_Till next time._

_-Vega Sailor_


	13. Fuelshed Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

When We Where Young 

Chapter –13 Fuelshed Part 1

Thundercracker was beginning to wish he had taken Soundwave's advice. The empty campus streets had an extra eerie feeling tonight. 

He felt like he was being watched…

**********************************************

Soundwave looked out the window at the empty streets below. His fingers tapped nervously on the study room table.

"Soundwave will you stop that, please?" The annoyance in Shockwave's voice was evident. "If you don't I predict a 99.9% percent chance that it will soon drive me to _insanity_."

Soundwave stopped tapping.

"Thank you. May I ask what has you so disturbed?" Shockwave closed his laptop.

Before Soundwave could answer, his audios picked up a soft knocking on the study room door. The door opened slowly to reveal the elusive Scrapper.

"Hello….umm…I just…uh…came in to work on something. I…I didn't feel like being alone. I won't disturb you anymore."

Shockwave motions to one of the empty seats. Scrapper sits down and opens his laptop.

"Do we frighten you?" Soundwave tilted his head at Scrapper.

"Oh. Well, no and yes. You see, it's not so much you, it's just that……" Scrapper trailed off.

" I predict an 89.906% chance that this has to do with being separated from your combiner team."

"89.906%? Try 100%." Scrapper sighed. "I'm tense and nervous wondering if my Constructicons have destroyed each other yet."

*********************************

"Primus, what do you put in this slag Octane? Battery acid?" Skywarp coughed after ingesting Octane's "homemade" heavy energon.

"Just for color." The Triple-Changer smirked sitting back on one of the entertainment room's couches and taking a swig of the stuff himself.

"Yeah, Octane's Brew is good for two things. Greasin' engines and killin' brain circuits." Blitzwing chuckled. He didn't want to think about how much trouble he was in and he "advised" no one ask him about it. So some brain circuit killing "energon" was just what he needed. 

"Aw man, this is so bad it would make a maggot gag. Ugh." Skywarp, moaned. " I think I'm going to go regurgitate now, excuse me." 

"Come on Skywarp, they're just getting to the missile launchers on the Weapons Channel." Dirge called after the black and purple jet.

"Yeah, now it's gettin' good." Ramjet sneered at the screen that now had a nuclear warhead being presented by the channel's salesbot.  

Blitzwing leaned his head back against the couch and muttered. "Wonder whatever happened to 'Cracker?"

Suddenly the front door burst open, but it wasn't Thundercracker….

"Hey Onslaught! What brings ya' by?" Thrust asks cheerfully

"Heh. I gotta stay here for the combiner separation experiment/competition."

"Separation?"

"Yeah, instead of taking a written test to get into the Academy we gotta take a "different" one. Whoever's team can last the longest separated from their leader without killing each other gets in to the Academy. It sucks crude."

"Hmph! I'd rather do something like that then take that horrible entrance test. Yuck." Dirge pretended to gag.

"May I ask where your caretaker is?" Onslaught sighed.

"He left to go see the Headmaster, a while ago." Thrust answered.

"Wait a minute. Your caretaker wouldn't be the freaky looking guy with all the weapons attached to him, and ends a sentence with the word "yes"…….would he?"

"Yep, that's him." Octane reported casually.

"Wonderful." Onslaught's voice was dripping with sarcasm. 

"Meh. It's not so bad. Have a seat." Dirge motions to a spot on the couch. "By the way Onslaught, have you seen Thundercracker anywhere."

"No I haven't…….."

****************************************

 Ravage quickened his pace to keep up with the winged Decepticon, Soundwave had told him to follow. Why Soundwave had asked him to trail this particular Decepticon he didn't know. Usually his parent tended to stay away from the winged ones due to the fact that they tended to show him terrible cruelty, but this particular one had not. Ravage remembered that short time on the field when this same blue winged one had shown up. 

What was his name again? 

_Thundercracker. _

That's it.

Then this Thundercracker had shown again at the house. Soundwave had used his voice to go along with the Starscream's voice with the new rhythmic sounds Soundwave had made. Ravage had to admit that though it was not as beautiful as Soundwave's, the Thundercracker's voice was quite exceptional with its deep and rich tones. 

"Is someone there?" The Thundercracker spoke.

'Uh, oh.' Ravage thought. 'Did he hear me? Am I losing my edge?'

"Hello?" The Thundercracker called out again.

It was then Ravage realized that he was not the only shadow of the blue winged one. Someone else was also stalking the Thundercracker….

********************************************************

"Is someone there?" Thundercracker called out. 

The streets were quiet.

"Hello?" Thundercracker called again.

Only silence answered him.

'This is stupid!' Thundercracker thought angrily. 'I'm just scaring myself.'

He stood completely still for another few seconds.

'It's all in my mind…..right?'

*************************************

This chapter is like a two part episode. Don't worry the second part is done and ready to go, but I want to tantalize my audience a little. Don't give me that puppy eye look, you won't have to wait for more than two days. Be patient. I just want to give you plenty of time to read and enjoy this. Oh and don't forget to review and tell me what you think ^_^

Vega Sailor


	14. Fuelshed Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

***NOTE:** Now when you read this, you are going to start thinking, "Wait! Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback don't have that ability, Vega Sailor has no idea what she's talking about!" Just trust me, I do know what I'm talking about, and it's going to get explained in later chapters, so just hang on with me, ok? ^_^

Now on with the story!

When We Where Young 

Chapter –14 Fuelshed Part 2

"I say we cerebro shell him right now. What are we waiting for?!" Bombshell hissed to Shrapnel and Kickback as the three watched their prey continue his walk down the street.

"No, we can't do that. Not now, now." Shrapnel hissed back.

"Why not?" Kickback snarled. "It's not fair you're the only one who got a hit on Blitzwing! I would like to have seen Bombshell cerebro shell him and then I could have finished it off with a good kick out the window!"

"And then the other five war ball team members in the room would've seen our plot and clobbered us all, all!" Shrapnel growled.

Kickback remained silent, but Bombshell decided to make a point.

"So what do you suggest we do then?"

"I suggest, for this blue seeker, we pull ourselves together to do something more permanent, permanent." Shrapnel pulled his mouth into a smirk.

Kickback and Bombshell gave Shrapnel a questioning look.

"You mean combine?" Kickback asked slightly unnerved.

"Exactly, exactly."

******************************************

Thundercracker transformed in to jet mode and flew as slowly as his engines could manage and still stay airborne. If he flew too fast he would wake everyone with his namesake sonic booms. 

He felt safer in jet mode, even if he was flying really low to the ground it was still safer than in robot mode. 

******************************************

A single dark figure stood on top of one of the buildings, looking down at the blue jet target.

"We are ready, ready." It said…

******************************************

 Thundercracker felt something large and heavy land on his left wing. The sudden weight change on his left forced him to move in that direction. In the narrow streets he soon found himself flying sidelong into a building.

He felt a terrible pain surge through his left side as it impacted the unyielding metal of the structure. He transformed into robot mode and rubbed his head, waiting for the pain and dizziness to fade.

'What the hell was that?' Thundercracker thought as the pain subsided.

His question was answered when he saw a shadow cover him. 

"Oh poor Thundercracker is already in pain, pain. Let's add some more, more."

Thundercracker looked up at the thing standing above him. It had giant clawed hands, massive wings, metallic antlers and Shrapnel's distinct speech impediment.

"Shrapnel, Bombshell, and Kickback? A gestalt? It's not possible!" Thundercracker automatically raised his right arm to shoot. 

To his horror, he realized he hadn't pulled his weapons out of subspace after classes had ended. 

The gestalt smirked and swung one of its clawed hands at Thundercracker. The talons tore through the right side of the blue seeker's torso, taking with it his whole arm, half of his right air-intake cowling and everything else in between…

*************************************

"Awwwwww. Poor _Skyler_ can't handle his energon." The whole room burst into laughter at Octane's witticism. However, the laughter stopped when Skywarp crumpled to his knees on the floor, clutching the area on his chest plate where his laser core resided just underneath the metal and circuits.

"T……………..C……………TC…..?"

********************************************

Soundwave's head snapped alert, drawing Scrapper and Shockwave's optics to him.

"What's the matter?" Shockwave tilted his head at Soundwave. Scrapper looked equally curious.

"Thundercracker. Grave danger. Must act." Said Soundwave jumping up from his seat at the study table and rushing for the door.

Shockwave and Scrapper exchanged shrugs and followed.

"Megatron! Starscream! Assistance needed!" Soundwave appeared in the doorway to the training courtyard.

"What is it Soundwave?" Megatron looked genuinely concerned, something must really be bad if it got Soundwave so wound up.

"Ravage reports Thundercracker is under attack. If no assistance is given, Thundercracker will cease functioning…..!"

************************************

Thundercracker shuddered and fell. His face kissed the ground hard, but that pain was drowned out by the agony in the rest of his body. 

"Now that the pain has been delivered, how about a little humiliation, humiliation?"

Thundercracker lay there in silence unable to form words in the blur of torture and anguish. _What else could they possibly do to humiliate me? _

He let out a small moan when he felt the gestalt put one foot down on his back. 

_What are they…………..no………….._

_Not that! Please Primus! not that!_ Thundercracker tried to shut off his pain sensors, but he couldn't. Something must have gotten unhooked. Whatever came next, he would feel it all.

Thundercracker's worst fears were realized when he felt the gestalt grab hold of one of his wings.

_No Primus! Not my wings! Not my wings!_

Thundercracker tried to use his left arm to lift himself off the ground, but the weight of the gestalt and the loss of energon from the torn up right side of his torso, was too much for what he had left. 

The gestalt noticed his feeble attempt. "Nice try, try, but no good, good. You're going what's coming to you seeker, seeker." 

It took all of Thundercracker's will to keep from screaming, as he suffered the feel of his prized wings, the symbol of his flight, of being a Seeker, of being Thundercracker, were slowly torn from his body. Though he could restrain the scream he could not hold back the fluid welling up in his optics and spilling down his cheeks…

****************************************

Ravage remained still and silent watching the carnage before him. He had long since sent a message to Soundwave of the attack on the Thundercracker, but after that he wasn't sure what to do. Soundwave had told him to follow the winged seeker, but nothing more. He didn't want to do something that would be against Soundwave's wishes, but then again his parent wanted to use the Thundercracker's voice in another rhythmic sound compilation. If this winged one were destroyed Soundwave wouldn't have the voice he needed anymore. Ravage hated uncertainty.…

*****************************************

"TC! TC! Hang on Thundercracker! I'm comin'!" Skywarp burst out the Arial House door and ran in the direction of Maxima's house. His fellow housemates not knowing what the hell was going on ran after him.

********************************************

The gestalt gave Thundercracker a sharp kick to the side. The Seeker landed painfully on his now wingless back.

A half snarl, half smirk spread across the assailant's face as he picked up his victim by the neck and held him there for a few minutes, savoring the moments of his victory.

"Yes, yes. The poor, little, goalkeeping Seeker is in pain, pain. How about we eliminate the pain right now, now."

The gestalt held Thundercracker by the side of the head with one hand and raised the other to a position as if he were about to spike a ball. Suddenly the sharp claws became straight and stiff, aimed directly at the seeker's chest plate.

"Now right through the laser core, core."

Thundercracker shut his optics. 

_This is it? This is my end? I don't want to die like this!_

He tried to transform, to move, to do anything to prevent his demise. He could do nothing. Too much of his energon had been spilt. All he could do was wait for the fatal blow that would be the end of everything.

_…………Skywarp_

****************************************

Ravage growl as he saw his window of opportunity to attack the monster open, when it held up the Thundercracker. One of the small panzer's missiles hit the arm of the monster, while Ravage himself sunk his teeth for the beast's throat. The monster screamed and dropped its prey.

Thundercracker hit the ground once again. Through the cloud of pain and loss of energon, the Seeker was trying to comprehend what had just happened. For a single moment he caught a glimpse of his attacker trying to tear something small and black away from its throat. Then collapsing in exhaustion from pain and lack of vigor, Thundercracker slowly faded into the unfeeling calm of unconsciousness, not knowing whether he would come out of it again…

******************************************

Skywarp blinked. 

Thundercracker was so close, he could feel it, he could even swear he heard his brother's voice in his head. 

Just around the corner.

"Hang on Thundercracker!"

He turned the corner. The first thing he saw was a big shadowy figure running away, but it was the second thing that kept him from pursuing that said shadowy figure.

_Oh Primus no!_

Skywarp felt as if his core would beak apart. There was Thundercracker, the perfect goalkeeper, his friend, his twin. Mangled, broken, beaten and left to die……..

********************************************

That took a lot out of me to write, I hope you like it. Now you're probably wondering why Thundercracker would start crying when his wings were taken. My perception is that for an air fighter Decepticon, the symbol of his grandeur is his wings. So for Thundercracker, when the Insecticons ripped off his wings, it was just like being raped.

 Poor Thundercracker, I'm so mean to him. Believe me this the hardest chapter I've had to write so far. 

Originally chapter 13 and chapter 14 were one chapter, but I thought the comedy at the beginning of the chapter would take away from the horror at the end, or vice-versa. So I decided to split them up.

_And as always, I eagerly wait those reviews from you my loyal fans._

_-Vega Sailor^_^_


	15. Aftermath

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

When We Where Young 

Chapter –15 Aftermath

"Look Headmaster, the War Ball Championship Tournament is very important to the Decepticons, yes?"

"Yes."

"Then I don't see how anyone would be angry with you in deciding to drop the charges on Blitzwing."

"Death's Head I can not just drop the charges on Blitzwing. He attacked a professor, a superior. If I were to drop the charges now, I would only be encouraging such behavior from the other students. In these dangerous times the Decepticons cannot afford to have their own War Academy collapse in on itself. You see we have to teach them to not channel their aggression towards each other. For if they do that, they have nothing left for the enemy. Also, in terms of punishment, I like to keep things equal. That keeps aggressions against the administration down as well."   The Headmaster's voice was weary and irritated.

"Yes, but a victory at the Tournament would be another booster for this "ego trip war" of yours, yes?"

"Ego trip war?" The Headmaster looked a mixture of surprise, anger and amusement. "That's an interesting way of putting it?"

"Well I heard both sides and that's what it sounds like."

"Ah…...ha. Yes that's what most people think. The Autobots say they must conquer the evil that is the Decepticons. The Decepticons say that gaining control of the fatherland is the first step to conquering the universe for the glory of our race. Yes, it does sound like an ego trip doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"However, neither side wants to admit to how desperate it's gotten. The outcome of this war at this point in time, will decide which species survives. Victory is our only option. Losing will mean not only the loss of a war, but also the loss of our race's way of life." The Headmaster's weary amused look had turned dark and serious.

Death's Head didn't know what to say at this point.

"For the many Millennia of watching this war, I have never seen the stakes higher than what they are now. Let me tell you something more. The students here are being groomed to win this war, but either way it goes this generation will decide the war's outcome for the Decepticons. For better or for worse, the Decepticons fate is on their shoulders."

"I see."

"Actually, there is one way I could allow Blitzwing to play in the tournament without raising aggression of injustice amongst the academy populace. If a unanimous vote from both students and teachers say that Blitzwing should play in the tournament I shall allow him to do so. With this method, no one would have reason to accuse the administration of injustice because they chose it. I'll see what I can -----"

"Headmaster!" Mindwipe burst into the room, almost running into Death's Head as he did so. 

"One of the students! Thundercracker! Was brutally attacked, he may not live!"

**************************************************

"So let me get this slaggin straight!" Ramjet growled pacing around the Medcenter waiting room. "Our right forward has suffered a system crash because his brother, our goalkeeper, got all ripped up, we don't even know if our center forward is going to play and the Tournament is in a week and a half?!"

"Yep. That's about the size of it." Megatron answered calmly leaning back in one of the waiting room chairs. Soundwave sat quietly next to him, patching up some of the minor wounds Ravage sustained from attacking whatever it was that had assaulted Thundercracker.

Ramjet growled again and dropped into a chair next to an unusually quiet Blitzwing. 

"I wonder how Thundercracker is doing? And I hope Skywarp gonna be ok." Starscream looked up at the white ceiling. After suffering a system crash Skywarp was taken back to the house by Dirge and Thrust. Scrapper had directed the other Constructicons to accompany them. Just in case Thundercracker's assailant aimed to go after Skywarp as well, not to mention Thrust and Dirge.

"Whoever his attacker was, sure did a number him." Scrapper sighed.

"What made 'Warp crash?" Ramjet's frustration hadn't lessened any.

"Thundercracker and Skywarp connection assessed. They are twins." Soundwave answered, not even looking up from adding the finishing touches on Ravage.

"Twins?!" Blitzwing raised an optic brow in confusion.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Ramjet looked equally confused.

"It has everything to do with it." It was Scrapper who answered. "Like combiners, twins seem to have an intuitive link. However, though they cannot read each other's minds whenever they wish, like combiner teams, they can feel each other's feelings. Also, I know if I saw all of my Constructicons in the same condition Skywarp saw Thundercracker, I'd probably suffer a system crash too."

"Obviously they share the same creator and were first activated at the exact same time." Shockwave stated. "The probability of the creation of twins is 1 in a million. Seriously, it only works on the first activation and it won't work if you are off in the activation time by even a millionth of a micro second."

"I didn't know Cracker and Warp were twins, I thought they were just brothers like me, Thrust and Dirge." Ramjet looked quizzically at Shockwave.

"I've noticed that Soundwave and Ravage seem to have a similar type of bond. Isn't that right Soundwave?" Megatron glanced over to the spot were the blue cassette deck had been sitting, except he wasn't sitting there anymore. "Soundwave?"

Starscream slapped his hand against forehead. "How does he do that?!"

*******************************************

Soundwave walked silently through the campus streets with the newly repaired Ravage trotting at his heel. It was way past curfew, he knew he was breaking punishable rules. He also knew who had attacked Thundercracker, Ravage had seen it and informed him of both who and what it was. Now he had to get proof. 

The Forensic Bots were already at the attack site when Soundwave arrived, the Headmaster and the Arial House Caretaker, Death's Head were there as well. Everyone was so busy with the crime scene they didn't notice the lone student out and about way past curfew. 

_Are you sure you spilled their energon?_

Soundwave spoke without speaking.

Yes, the Shrapnel, the Kickback and the Bombshell combined threw me off and then started leaking over there.

Ravage's mind answered, as he led Soundwave around a corner and out of sight of the Forensic Bots.

*Sniff* The scent is still here. It is not the Thundercracker's or mine. The trail is still warm.

Ravage's confirming voice echoed in Soundwave's head. Soundwave nodded and answered.

If the trail is warm, then we must follow…

****************************************

Megatron, Starscream, Blitzwing and Scrapper walked back toward their respective Houses. Ramjet had flown on ahead, while Shockwave volunteered to stand guard and keep them posted on Thundercracker's condition.

They had just turned a corner when Ravage came trotting up to them. The panzer ran directly up to them then turned and started heading back the direction it came, stopped and turned its head to look at them.

"Now what do you suppose he wants?" Scrapper raised an optic brow.

"And where's Soundwave?" Megatron said gravely.

Ravage seemed to perk up at the mention of his creator's name. He jumped slightly and again made for the direction from which he came.

Megatron followed Ravage's lead. The others, unsure of what to do, followed after Megatron.

"Where are we going?" Starscream asked running alongside Megatron.

"Wherever he goes." Megatron motioned toward Ravage.

"What for?" Blitzwing called indignantly.

"Because if Ravage came to us alone, then it means one of two things, either Soundwave is in trouble or he has found something!"

Ravage turned a corner into an alleyway and abruptly stopped. Megatron skidded to a halt almost stepping on Ravage. Scrapper, not expecting the sudden stop, crashed into Megatron who fortunately managed to keep his balance. 

"Heh. Sorry." Scrapper shrugged, a little embarrassed at the chuckles from Blitzwing and Starscream.

"SHHH! It doesn't matter." Megatron hissed in a whisper as he walked slowly and silently following Ravage who was now in stalk/spy mode. The panzer's elegant paws made no sound when they hit the ground.

The four young Decepticons followed Ravage's lead as quietly as they could. They could hear voices from around the corner at the end of the alley. They slowly peeked around the corner.

"My apologies for Ravage's attack on you. He did not recognize you in your gestalt form. He thought your were an enemy intruder." Soundwave's calm monotone was unmistakable.

"That is quite all right, all right. Except he ruined our fun, our fun." Shrapnel's distinct speech pattern broke through the silence.

"Fun? You refer to attack on Thundercracker?" Soundwave's calm tone was unchanged.

"Fun is how Shrapnel prefers to frame it, however I see attacking Thundercracker as a way of teaching those War Ball hot heads a lesson in turning away good people." Bombshell hissed.

"Scrapper," Megatron whispered, "Go get the rest of your crew, we may need back up."

Scrapper nodded and silently ran off.

"So revenge on Thundercracker was enjoyment?" Said Soundwave dispassionately.

"Well, yes. Though---" Kickback frowned, his wings moving closer to his body. "Though ripping off his wings may have been a bit much." 

"Silence Kickback, Kickback!" Snapped Shrapnel.

"Yes, who do you think you are? An Autobot?" Bombshell sneered.

"Now that's just cruel Bombshell." Kickback's frown grew more hurt.

"By the way Soundwave, we apologize for Blitzwing falsely accusing you tattling on him, when it was us. But we thank you for not saying anything." 

Megatron and Starscream were holding Blitzwing back from running out there and strangling Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback. 

"I can't believe Soundwave is in league with those guys!" Starscream hissed angrily.

"Silence you fool!" Megatron's voice was whisper, but still threatening. "Soundwave's a genius, he's getting them to confess everything."

Starscream looked slightly hurt at Megatron's insult, but kept silent. 

"Heh. Too bad that Megatron had to come up with those new plays to win the Decepticon/Autobot game or our revenge might have ended there and spared Thundercracker some pain, pain." Shrapnel smirked.

"Did you sabotage them?" Soundwave's emotionless composure did not change.

"Well, sort of, of. All we did was borrow the team laptop and transmit the plays to the Autobot team, team." Shrapnel smirked.

"Shrapnel! Bombshell! Kickback!" Everyone turned to Venom running toward them. "I've been looking for you guys everywhere. It's way past curfew and I wanted to make sure to get you back to the before you cause any trouble."

"Venom, you're so overly suspicious. You should be careful of whose business you stick your antenna into." Bombshell hissed menacingly, Venom cautiously took a step back.

Seeing that Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback were busy talking with their comrade, Soundwave slowly and silently began to back away. It was then he found out too late that he had not stopped his recording device.

CLICK!

"You!" Shrapnel's face contorted with anger. "Very clever trick Soundwave, wave!"

"Too bad you won't live to tell it!" Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback combined into their gestalt form and lunged at Soundwave. 

Just before the claws that had ripped Thundercracker apart reached Soundwave, a huge beam came from the adjacent alleyway and made a direct hit on the gestalt. It split up back into Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback. 

Megatron, fusion cannon aimed and ready, walked out of the shadows from the adjacent alleyway, followed by an enraged Starscream and a sadistically grinning Blitzwing.

It didn't take a knock over the head to tell Venom that this was a bad situation, and he chose this time to slowly slip away. 'I knew those guys were in some kind of trouble.'

"You guys are gonna find that messin' with the War Ball team is going to end you up in a world o' hurt!" Blitzwing punched a fist into the palm of his other hand, as his grin turned into a fierce frown.

"You are lower than a pile of slag to do what you did to Thundercracker!" Starscream shrieked, brandishing his arm gun at them.

The three accused got to their feet and slid into fighting stances.

The two groups snarled and charged toward each other.

Before either side could fire a weapon, a big green barrier came down in between them. They looked up and saw it was a giant leg connected to a very big robot.

"ENOUGH!" The big robot shouted. "IT ENDS HERE! NO ONE CAN WITHSTAND THE MIGHT OF **DEVASTATOR!!**"

Devastator, as the robot called himself, lifted one of his massive feet and aimed it right over the heads of Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback.

"Get 'em Devastator! Smear their circuits all over the ground!" Shouted Blitzwing. A brutal smile spread across Devastator's face.

"Hold it right there Mr.!" Devastator stopped in mid stomp upon hearing the familiar voice. "I said you could help in their capture, not turn them into tiny pieces."

Everyone turned to see the Headmaster followed by Death's Head and some of the other campus authorities.

"Shrapnel! Bombshell! Kickback!" The Headmaster turned his attention to them. "If you come willingly no further harm will come to you, until judgement is made."

The accused nodded and slowly followed the campus authorities. 

"Death's Head. Please escort these students back to their respective Houses." The Headmaster motioned toward Megatron, Starscream, Blitzwing and Soundwave.

"Come you," Death's Head said to them. "It's way past your recharge time, yes?"

Megatron, Starscream, Blitzwing and Soundwave nodded and silently followed Death's Head's lead.

"Um, Headmaster?" Devastator finally spoke up.

"Yes Devastator?" The Headmaster stopped, turned, and levitated up to look face to face at the green gestalt.

"Uh Sir, can I put my foot down now………?"

************************************

I'm so sorry for the long wait, but I had my wisdom teeth removed, so I've been on this heavy narcotic pain medication for a while and I wanted to wait until I had recovered a little more before continuing this story. Plus, I'm simultaneously writing out a shorter Fanfic that stars Hook from the Constructicons. It's called "Fractured Mentality" I wrote it out on paper while I was under the heaviest pain killer drugs so we'll see how it comes out. Anyway keep those reviews coming, and don't worry you will find out Thundercracker's condition first thing in the next chapter.

Till next time.

-Vega Sailor


	16. Many Problems

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

When We Were Young 

Chapter –16 

_Sharp teeth…._

_Five faces…._

_Has the imperial magistrate reached a verdict?_

Soundwave's optics snapped online. He sat up and looked around. He was in his familiar room at the academy, there were no faces or teeth and Ravage was recharging peacefully next to him….

************************************

Astrotrain groaned slightly as he stretched this stiffness out of back and wings. Nearly getting his wings shot off, going out into space to stay safe, re-entering, and having to recover in med bay always left him a little stiff. If that weren't enough he was due to take a trip to Polyhex in two hours. 

"What's a matter with you Astro?" Flywheels slowly sat up from the med table he was lying on. Flywheels had been one of the injured Astrotrain had brought home for high tech repairs.

"Oh nothin'. Just a little stiff, that's all." Astrotrain sighed, his left wing felt particularly sore.

"Hey. What did you do with that music your friends sent you?" 

"It's in my subspace pocket. Why?" Astrotrain mumbled while trying to look as far as he could over his shoulder as he could to try and get a good look at his aching wing.

"Can we listen to it again?" Flywheels perked up.

"Oh, no. Not that again!" Flywheels moaned.

Astrotrain's head turned from examining his wing to face Flywheels. 

"Hey, I've got a right to listen to what I want!" Flywheels spat.

"Not if it's gonna annoy the slag out of me!" Flywheel retorted.

One of the medics noticed the slightly unnerved expression on Astrotrain's face.

"Don't mind him, he's one of the newly created Duocons. Unfortunately, he has glitch in his system, his two parts have separate personalities." The medicbot stated matter-o-factly.

"Right……" Astrotrain muttered, still slightly disturbed at seeing a transformer argue with himself. However, his attention was detracted from Flywheels when a small messenger bot came in and handed Astrotrain a message disc. The Triple-Changer sighed as he pulled his laptop out of his subspace pocket and inserted the disc.

He hoped it was a cancellation on his trip to Polyhex and he could get a couple days of break time, he expected it to be more details of his mission, he found out that it was something much more serious.

"Y'know what I would like very much is that you would give your mouth a rest!" Flywheels snapped.

"My pleasure." Flywheels snarled.

"Thank you very much." Flywheels growled.

"You're welcome." Flywheels griped.

"So, how about that music Astro? Astro? Hey where'd ya' go?" Flywheels had been so enthralled in his personal argument that he hadn't noticed Astrotrain's optics go wide as he reads the message, then dash out the medbay door.

"He probably took off to get away from you." Flywheels sneered.

"Now don't start that again…….!" Flywheels roared.

**************************************************

"Do I really have to do this?"

"If you want to get away from the Combaticons then, yes."

"I know, but why me Scrapper?"

"Because it has to sound like the team came up with it without my help, so I can't. Hook is down in the med center. Bonecrusher and Mixmaster are not articulate speakers, and Scavenger is off…..looking for……stuff." Scrapper sighed. "So, that means you must do it."

The other Constructicon still looked a little nervous. Scrapper patted him reassuringly on shoulder. "Look just do what we all talked about last night after the Thundercracker incident. If it doesn't work out, we'll improvise. We're Constructicons for Primus' sake. Remember this is for the team."

"Right! For the team!" The Constructicon marched directly up to the Headmaster's office door and knocked…

"Enter." A deep stern voice answered from inside.

The Constructicon walked into room and shut the door behind him.

"Whatever it is Longhaul, please be brief." The Headmaster sounded tired. 

'Good.' Longhaul thought. 'It'll give me a little bit of an edge'.

"Um sir, y'know that abandoned house about a block up from Aerial House?"

"Yes." The Headmaster leaned back in his chair slightly.

"Well, I…I mean the Constructicons and I were wondering if, in exchange for building the place up to safety standards, we could live in it. I mean the current conditions for us now are kinda crowded, y'know with the Combaticons and all." Longhaul shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, I don't see why not---"

"Excellent!" Longhaul headed for the door.

"----as long as Scrapper does not help you at the construction site."

"What?" Longhaul whirled around

"The competition is still on. It lasts for two weeks and we're only a few days in. So which ever is done first will decide when it ends for you Constructicons. If the building project is done first, then the Constructicons have shown they can function together with out the constant supervision of their leader and they have made a contribution to the school, so they will automatically be allowed to stay at the academy. However, if it is not done by two weeks, they will be judged like all of the other combiner teams at the end of the competition." The Headmaster spoke calm and plain.

"I……see…."

"But you have my approval to start whenever you like. You best go, first period starts in a few minutes and I have much to do."

"Yes sir." Longhaul slowly exited the office, not sure whether to be happy the Headmaster accepted the proposal or sad that their leader would not be allowed to work with them…….

***********************************************

Astrotrain smiled slightly as he walked back on campus. It was good to be home for a little while, too bad it was under such terrible circumstances.

Astrotrain quietly walked into the Medical Wing, classes for the day had already started and he didn't want to disturb anybody. He hoped he wouldn't receive bad news when he finally arrived at the med bay.

Unfortunately, he wasn't looking where he was going, so he failed to see the other student as he turned the corner.

Bam!

The other student fell back onto the ground, clutching a blue box tightly to his chest.

"I'm sorry, my mind's a little off track right now." Astrotrain held out a hand to the other student.

"Well you ought to start getting it back on track around here." The other student brushed Astrotrain's hand aside and helped himself up. "The instruments in this box are sterile and delicate, do you have any idea how much trouble I would be in if they spilt out all over this dirty floor?"

"Not really." Astrotrain said absently, as he studied the other student. He knew he'd seen that color design before, but where? 

"A lot, that's for sure! Now if you will excuse me I have to get these to the Med bay. If only I could find it! I mean I've only been at this Academy for 36hours!"

You're a Constructicon aren't you?!" Astrotrain suddenly blurted out.

The other student stopped and turned back to Astrotrain.

"You've heard of us?" A smile slowly spread across his face.

"Yeah you're the guys who built Crystal City right?" For a moment Astrotrain felt a small smile cross his own face.

"Yes, it was one of our greatest achievements." The Constructicon student said almost wistfully.

"Amazing! My name's Astrotrain. What's yours?"

"My name is Hook. It's good to finally get some respect from my peers."

"You're welcome. By the way, the Med Bay is this way." Astrotrain pointed. "I'm headed there myself."

Hook nodded and followed. "So what are you in for?"

"I got word my friend, Thundercracker, had been attacked and badly torn up. For my good service in the war effort they've given me a 24hr leave period to visit him." Astrotrain sighed sadly.

"You mean the goalkeeper? Don't worry they're about to release the info that he's going to pull through."

"That's good." Astrotrain lightened a bit. "You think they'll let me see him."

"Hmmm. Well now that he's out of the danger zone, I don't see why not. The question is, do you want to see him? He's still in pretty bad shape." Hook raised an optic brow.

"Yes, I do. I only have a limited amount of time before I head back to my own danger zone…"

******************************************

The vote for Blitzwing was unanimous. 

 After the attack on Thundercracker (the goalkeeper), and the resulting system crash of Skywarp (the right forward) were made known to the populace of the Decepticon War Academy, even the students and teachers who disliked Blitzwing voted that he should play in the War Ball Championship Tournament. They disliked the idea of losing the tournament more than they disliked the triple changing center forward.

"Hey Dirge what did Death's Head have to say about Skywarp?" Megatron turned his head to the blue coneheaded jet, as the War Ball team took a stroll around campus to discuss the team's current problems.

"Still down and out." Dirge sighed gravely, as he put away his pocket communicator.

"Well, at least we've got Blitzwing back, but who are we gonna get to replace Skywarp and Thundercracker." Thrust worried.

"I do have an idea of who can be our new right forward." Megatron stated authoritatively.

"Oh, yeah? Who?" Blitzwing muttered.

"Starscream."

"The science nerd?" Blitzwing raised an optic brow.

"Actually Blitzwing, you gotta admit. In Arial Combat Class, Screamer's got some good moves." Dirge declared matter-o-factly. 

"Well, screamer maybe fast, but does he have the strength to last a War Ball game." Blitzwing questioned.

"He's a lot stronger than he looks, believe me I've sparred with him. He has a lot a potential that could be brought out with practice and conditioning." Megatron affirmed.

"Well, it's not like we have a lot of options and time so let's give the guy a try out and see how he does." Blitzwing shrugged.

"What about me?!" Octane almost screamed out

"You're not fast enough Octane you know that." Dirge answered calmly.

Octane turned his head to the ground grumbling.

"Octane, actually you can take part in a very important job for us." Megatron walked over to the disgruntled Triple-Changer. "Whoever we chose as the replacement for the right forward position Octane you will be in charge of conditioning him for the tournament. When he's not in practice with rest of us, in classes or the _required_ recharge time, we want you getting him physically and mentally ready for the tournament by any means necessary. 

"Hmmmm." Octane smirked. "I like the sound of that."

"However, stop short of maiming or killing them, and don't think doing that will get you on the team because it won't." Megatron added.

"Damn!" Octane snapped his fingers, but was still smirking.

"Well now that we've got that established. I'll go call him…." Megatron pulled out his pocket communicator.

*******************************

"Skyfire! Skyfire! Skyfire! Skyfire! Skyfire! Skyfire! Skyfire!" Starscream ran into the Chemistry Room, where Skyfire was working on the next day's lesson plan.

"What? What? What? What? What? What? What?!" Skyfire smiled, looking up his work.

"Guess what?" Starscream was beaming. He looked as if he was about to bounce right through the roof. "Megatron just called and he says I've got the best chance of being the new right forward on the War Ball team!"

Skyfire's smile faded and he remained silent.

"This is the part where you say 'way to go,' 'congratulations'" Starscream raised an optic brow.

"Way to go." Skyfire's voice sounded as lifeless as junked jet.

"Congratulations?"

"Congratulations." Skyfire's voice kept its deadpan tone.

"Thanks for all of the enthusiasm." Starscream's own voice went from beaming and happy, disappointed and confused.

"Starscream, I thought you were above of that cheap entertainment violence." Skyfire said with an exasperated sigh.

"I know, but this the War Ball team. No matter what position you play, if you're on it everyone will admire and look up to you. I'll get noticed and my peers won't look at me as a science nerd anymore." The beaming excitement returned to Starscream's face.

"I would rather see you as a science nerd than a partaker in such meaningless violence!"

"Meaningless?!"

"I raised you to be better than that!"

"Wait a minute!"

"Even if you do make the team, do you really think you're strong enough to for that brutal game?! I mean you've got savages like that Megatron running around there!"

**_"Stop it!!" _**Starscream shrieked at the top of his air intake valves, right into Skyfire's face. 

Skyfire was stunned silent at Starscream's outburst.

"Megatron may be a savage, but he's one who has faith in my potential! That's a lot more than I can say for you or anyone else who has met me!" Energon tears of frustration and rage began to well up in Starscream's optics. "You saved me once from deactivation by those who thought I was weak. Now I intend to save myself forever, from those who doubt. This is my one chance to prove myself to be strong, to put myself in a place where no one can touch me! _Ever!_"

Starscream turned and stormed toward the door.

"Starscream, I---"

"I thought you! You! My friend! My protector! Of all bots would happy for me!" Starscream cried, slamming the door behind him.

"Good one Skyfire," the Scientist jet sighed to himself.

***************************************

_Hah! You guys thought that I had forgotten about Astrotrain. Nope he's alive and well….for now anyway. Now I'm not sure I portrayed Flywheels right, unfortunately I haven't seen a lot of the third season so I don't know how he's portrayed in the show. So I just went with what it said on the tech spec, then again this is his only appearance._

_I'm so sorry for the long wait. I was taking part in Sorority recruitment week (I got rejected =_=), and it left little time for story writing._

Will Thundercracker recover? Will Skywarp wake up? Will Starscream be able to last War Ball Practice and Octane's "conditioning". And what will be the fate of Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback? All that and more to be found out in the next chapter of When We Were Young. As all ways keep those reviews and opinions coming. Thank you so much!

_See you next time!_

_-Vega Sailor_


	17. Wake Up Call

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

When We Were Young 

Chapter –17 Wake Up Call

_Sharp teeth…._

_Five faces…._

_Has the imperial magistrate reached a verdict?_

_I have……._

"Negative!" Soundwave shouted upon awakening. 

***********************************************

"Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback!" The Headmaster addressed the three standing before him.  "You have been charged with to attempts of sabotage of Decepticon victory in the public eye. Your first charge is your sending of information of War Ball game plays and information to the Autobot War Ball team, the second charge is the attempted slaying of the War Ball team's goalkeeper."

The Headmaster stood up. Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, his optics a mixture of anger disappointment and pity. " I have spoken to Lord Straxus about both charges. He has deemed that during these dangerous times, any threats against Decepticon victory must be eliminated. In other words, what you have is the equivalent of treason and assassination, and that your punishments must be the same as such."

The three accused drew back slightly in terror. Everyone knew that treason equaled death.

"Lord Straxus has left it up to me to deliver your sentence. Do to your young age I am hesitant to have destroyed, as he would wish. I will give you a choice. You may chose a traitor's death or a life exiled completely from Cybertron. I do warn you though. If you chose exile you shall have your ability to form a gestalt taken from you."

The three turned to each other. 

" I don't want to die, I say we choose exile." Kickback whimpered slightly.

"And just how long do you think we would last without our gestalt powers?" Bombshell hissed.

"At least there's a chance, chance." Shrapnel snarled back.

Bombshell had to agree with that. They turned back to the Headmaster.

"We chose life in exile, exile."

"Very well. I leave you in the hands of Primus."

*********************************************

"This is so slaggin pathetic!" Blitzwing growled, kicking one of the five practice War Balls through the goal ring. "We've tried out the whole slaggin school and we can't find one decent goalkeeper.

"At least decent by our standards." Dirge sighed.

"Indeed, too bad combiners are so unstable or one of them might make a pretty good goal keeper." Thrust looked over to the other end of the practice field where the Combaticon named Brawl and the Constructicon named Bonecrusher were entangled in a vicious wrestling type match, while Longhaul and the other Combaticons watched cheering them on.

"Slag!" Blitzwing growled again and booted another practice ball, this time with no direction in mind. Unfortunately the direction it was going was straight towards Soundwave and Shockwave who happened to be walking by at that moment.

Soundwave seemed to be deeply engrossed in conversation with Shockwave, see as how he didn't seem to notice a huge War Ball flying toward him. However, when the ball was mere inches from his cranium, Soundwave raised his arm and whacked the ball away without even turning his head to look.

The War Ball team looked at each other then looked back at Soundwave and Shockwave. The two robots walked on as if nothing had happened.

A smirk crept across Megatron's face.

"I think we found ourselves a goalkeeper."

**********************************************

"I'm…I'm alive?" Thundercracker croaked as his optic sensors cleared. Primus, his voice sounded terrible, but that's what you get when someone holds you by the throat and brutalizes you.

"Yup. Alive and fully functioning…well…at least your vitals are." The one named Hook answered. The other medics were working on putting the right half of Thundercracker's torso back together.

"So that means Astrotrain's alive too. That's good." Thundercracker stared up from his place on the med table at Hook and Astrotrain.

"His feeling sensors have been shut off so he won't feel the work being done to him. However, he will be a little….umm…spacey." Hook stated.

"Ah, ha." Astrotrain turned back to Thundercracker.

"So, how was your day?" Astrotrain smirked, knowing perfectly well what Thundercracker had been through.

"Swell." Thundercracker chuckled slightly. "So are you back for good?"

"Afraid not. I'm due at Polyhex Central in 22 hours." Astrotrain sighed.

"Wait a minute! Where's Skywarp?!" Thundercracker tried to lift his body to look around the room, but the head medic, whose name was Tourniquet, pushed him back down.

"Don't move or you'll tear open your recovering wounds," Tourniquet talked as if he were a field commander giving orders to a soldier for battle.

"But I have to find him! I have to know if he is ok!"

"Don't worry your twin suffered a system crash after he finding you in your condition after you'd been assaulted. However, he suffered nothing more than that, in fact he's probably awoken by now since you have." Hook stated.

"Good." Thundercracker sighed and relaxed.

"Well done Hook," Tourniquet commended him. " You seem to have a knack for calming patients down without treating them like children."

Hook smiled proudly as Tourniquet went back to patching up Thundercracker's injuries.

"Astrotrain," Thundercracker spoke up. "Could you go check on Skywarp and tell him I okay?"

"No problem 'Cracker, I was heading to the Aerial House anyway." 

"Thundercracker it's time we shut you down to recharge in any case. You need your rest if you want to be well enough to play in the Championship tournament."

Thundercracker nodded, then turned his head to Astrotrain again. "Thanks."

Astrotrain nodded and smiled before heading for the door.

"Astrotrain, wait a moment," the Triple Changer heard Hook call after him.

"What's up?"

"I noticed that throughout this whole period of talk, you keep twisting and stretching the left side of your back, are you in pain? Is something broken?" The Constructicon inquired.

"Actually, come to think of my left wing could use a look." Astrotrain sighed stretching the left side of his back again.

"All right then," Hook motioned to a med table. "Let's have a look."

"Wait a second. _You're_ gonna look at it?" Astrotrain had slightly nervous look on his face. After all Hook didn't look much older than himself. A picture of Blitzwing and Octane playing "doctor" ran through his head.

"All have you know that though I'm technically not certified to be a surgeon yet, I have patched up many of my comrades when they were in critical condition. Had it not been for me, they might not be alive. The reason I'm down here in the med bay and taking classes about this is to rack up hours to get certified." Hook said trying to keep his temper down from having his skills questioned.

Astrotrain shut his mouth and sat down on the table. 'My back hurts like functioning metal in a smelting pit, what have I got to lose?'

No sooner had that thought passed through Astrotrain's head, than he heard Hook's voice again. "Ah, ha here's the problem. Your left wing is slightly out of alignment, you see it puts strain on the left side of your back, which is why----"

"Yeah, yeah thanks for the diagnosis, could you just fix it please?!" Astrotrain spoke through clenched teeth. 

Hook shrugged. "All right. Brace yourself, I'll have to realign it manually and it's going to hurt………..a lot."

Hook placed one foot on Astrotrain's back to steady both himself and the triple-changer. Nobody noticed Thundercracker's optics widen as Hook took hold of one of Astrotrain's wings.

"NO! NO! Not his wings!!!! NOT HIS WINGS!!!!!" Thundercracker screamed, feebly trying to move to help Astrotrain. 

Suddenly, blue seeker's optics went dark and he fell limp back onto the med table.

"Thundercracker!!!" Astrotrain moved to his friend's side, but was stopped by Tourniquet.

"It's all right I just shut him down so that he wouldn't cause further injury to himself. Now why don't you sit back down and tend to your own."

Astrotrain nodded and sat back down in front of Hook, repeated what he had started before Thundercracker's outburst.

Hook took hold of Astrotrain's wing again. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Astrotrain sighed.

"Ok."

CRUNCH!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU SLAGGING BASTARD!!"

"Yeah I get that a lot." Hook smirked.__

*************************************

Skywarp walked toward the to the beam of light.

There was something lying there in the beam of light, something that was so familiar.

He drew closer.

It was blue. It was wounded, cords spilled out of where it's arm should have been. The leakage formed a small pool around it.

It turned its head to the black seeker. Its face was a look of sorrow and pain.

It spoke.

_………Skywarp._

*********************************

Skywarp's optics flickered back online.

"Th…Th…Thundercracker?" Skywarp, wearily and painfully raised his upper body to see if his last memories had actually happened.

He did a slow pan of his environment, which he quickly recognized as his room. His optics fell on the empty recharge bed at the room's other end.

It was true! It had happened! Skywarp shudder of terror rush through his body. Was Thundercracker dead? He had to find out.

Skywarp unplugged himself from the recharge bed swung his legs over the side and slowly stood up on his feet. His whole body creaked and yearned to lie back down on the bed, but he managed to force himself out the door. He slowly staggered down the hallway and into the entertainment room.

"How ya' feeling 'Warp?" Thrust was sitting next to Blitzwing in one of the many armchairs and couches that adorned the entertainment room. The whole War Ball team was there, Megatron was showing videos of some of teams they would be going up against in the Championship to Soundwave and Starscream. Skywarp also took notice that the Constructicons Longhaul and Bonecrusher occupied the room as well.

"Where's Thundercracker?" 

"Well, Well look who's up." Octane half slammed his hands down onto Skywarp's shoulders. The seeker shuddered slightly, uncertain if his stiff lower body would support him.

"Stiff and sore and take your hands off me right now." Skywarp's voice sounded tired and angry. "Where's Thundercracker?"

"He's in med bay," Blitzwing watched Skywarp stagger towards the Aerial House door. " But he's ok."

Skywarp stopped and turned back to the others, his face a mixture of relief and worry. "He's…..He's ok?

"Yeah, but in the meantime Soundwave over there is gonna replace him."

"What?!" Skywarp whirled his head around to face the cassette bearer. "If you think you're gonna replace Thun----"

"Substitution, not replace." The blue transformer stood. "Position temporary. Held until Thundercracker returns."

"Yeah, he's not half bad either. It's like he can tell what you're gonna do before you do it. Too bad he's not as quick as 'Cracker." Dirge spoke up.

"Y'know we better get back to our House it's, almost required study time." Megatron gathered up the video discs and made his way to the door. Soundwave quickly followed.

"Come on Starscream, time to go. Starscream?"

Megatron looked back and found the aforementioned seeker lying deep in recharge on one of the couches.

"Aw. Let 'em sleep." Longhaul spoke up from his seat along the wall next to Bonecrusher. "Octane had way too much fun 'conditioning' him today. Believe me I was there."

**************************Flashback**************************

"COME ON! FASTER! DON'T TELL ME I'M BEATING YOU!" Octane yelled.

"Tell me again, just what is the point of this?" Starscream gasped between air intakes.

Starscream was currently running, not flying, running up a very steep hill not far from the War Ball practice field. Octane meanwhile was sitting in the back of Longhaul in vehicle mode, stopwatch in hand taunting the young seeker as they drove up beside him.

"The point is to build up your endurance. To get you used to fatigue and pain. Plus, it's just damn fun to watch you suffer, science boy."

"You're mean." Starscream growled

"I'm not mean, I'm just sadistic." Octane smirked.

*************************Flashback****************************

"And that was just the warm-up." Longhaul concluded. "I'm surprised the little fly boy is still in one piece. I'll give him credit for that."

"You're a slagging piece of slag Octane." Starscream murmured, his optics flickering online.

"Of the highest degree." Octane smiled.

Suddenly the Aerial House door burst open and an unexpected visitor stomped into the entertainment. "Ok, who's the dipstick who didn't plan a welcome home party for me?"

Everyone turned to the speaker in shock, for it was the last voice they ever expected to hear. Sure enough, standing in the entryway of the entertainment room was Astrotrain.

"Well? Is anyone gonna answer me, or are all just gonna stand there like-----oof!" Astrotrain hit the floor hard. He had failed to notice a certain gold and purple transformer performing his infamous "flying leap tackle."

"Where in the smelting pits have you been?!"

"Gimme a break Blitz. It's the hardest thing to get a ticket home from the frontlines, and you gotta watch it with those enthusiastic greetings, I'm a war veteren now."

Blitzwing smirked and helped his fellow triple-changer to his feet. "Good ta' have ya' home."

Astrotrain's smile faded. "Don't get too happy, I've only got 19 hours left."

However Blitzwing's grin remained. "Well that'll give us plenty of time to talk. There's some things I wanna discuss with ya'."

"Sure. I'd-----What's the matter with him?"

Everyone turned to see Soundwave buckled over, gripping his head. 

"Soundwave?!" Megatron ran over to him.

"They…..are…..here." The azure robot choked out.

"What?! Who?!------"

BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"What the hell was that?!" Blitzwing shouted.

Suddenly the house communicator turned on and they could hear the Headmaster's voice.

"Students remain in your houses. What you just heard was the crash landing of a Quintesson space craft…"

*************************************

_Sorry, for the long wait folks. I just started college and it took me a while to adjust, which left little time for writing._

_Don't worry, I'll update this story very soon I promise._

Till next time.

_-Vega Sailor_


	18. Mental Wall

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story, except for Heavens War. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

*Note: In my story Soundwave turns into a Cassette player like he does on earth, instead of his Cybertronian form as a communications tower.*

**When We Were Young**

Chapter -18 Mental Wall

"Quintessons?! What the hell are the Quintessons doing here." Starscream muttered, as he, Megatron and Soundwave walked back toward Maxima's house. Shortly after the announcement of the Quintesson crash landing, all students were ordered to return to their respective houses.

"Great. I finally get on the War Ball Team and now we're probably not even going to the Championship." Starscream's mutter turned into a growl.

"Now they didn't say that, let's hope they won't." Megatron answered calmly then looked back Soundwave who seemed to be dragging his feet behind them. Instead of the usual straight backed posture with optics always facing straight ahead. His shoulders and head drooped and his optics just blankly focused on the ground.

"Soundwave?" The blue robot lifted his head up to meet Megatron's gaze. "Are you ok?"

"Affirmative, all systems are functional." He stated.

"That's not what I meant." Megatron said flatly, Soundwave bowed his head slightly.

"I mean up here," Megatron pointed to his head.

Soundwave looked back down at the ground again. "I have been having visions during recharge I assumed they were transmissions, but they are not. They are too vivid. They are clear, like a memory."

"A memory? Have you ever come face to face with a Quintesson?"

"………"

"Soundwave? Did you or didn't you?"

"Unknown………"

"What? Unknown?"

Suddenly Soundwave's head snapped up, his optic band flashed brightly. "I must get to the Quintesson ship!"

"W-What?" Megatron was a little startled at Soundwave's outburst.

"It will be difficult. I require assistance. Will you help me?"

"I don't know Soundwave. The Headmaster gave a direct order, now I'm no goody-good, but I don't want to get expelled." Megatron frowned.

"If we are caught I could say I used my mind control powers on you," Soundwave stated seriously.

"Wait, you can do that?" Megatron said slightly unnerved.

"Affirmative, on those with weak minds."

"I are you implying that ----" Megatron started to shout, but was cut off.

"Negative!" Soundwave answered quickly and insistently. " Your mind is too strong, but they don't know that."

"True. But…." Megatron looked at Soundwave. The cassette transformer's optic band grew wide almost………pleading. "All right, what do you have in mind."

For moment Soundwave's optics seemed to smile.

"DAHHHHHHHHH!" Megatron and Soundwave turned to see Starscream running toward them. Without saying a word Starscream ducked behind Megatron. The silver robot looked over his shoulder at the red Seeker.

"What in the smelting pits do you think you are doing?!" Megatron shouted.

"Trying to stay away from him!" Starscream snarled, pointing over Megatron's shoulder. Megatron spun his head around, coming nose to nose with another robot that he had obviously thought was much further away.

Megatron looked the other robot up and down. He had the same color scheme as Scrapper, so it was safe to assume he was part of Scrapper's team. However unlike Scrapper, this particular robot had a mouth, but he didn't speak.

"Um…hi?" Megatron addressed the other bot.

"He's been stalking me all day." Starscream hissed from behind Megatron. Megatron looked at Starscream then back at the other robot.

"What do you want with Starscream?" Megatron narrowed his optics at the other transformer standing before him. After the attempted murder of Thundercracker, any possible threat to any War Ball team member had to be taken seriously.

The other transformer opened his mouth to say something, closed it, looked at the ground then opened his mouth again and finally spoke. "He-He-He is m-my-my l-la-lab p-partner. W-We-We have a-a-a p-project. H-He-He-He's b-b-been av-avoiding m-m-me."

'No wonder he didn't want to talk.' Megatron thought and smirked. "What's your name?"

"Mixmaster." The Constructicon seemed to have less trouble saying his name.

Megatron looked back at Starscream and asked in a half amused voice, "is this true Starscream?"

Starscream suddenly became very interested in the ground.

"Sorry, Screamer no taking the easy way out of homework." Megatron smirked again and stepped aside. Starscream turned in an attempt to escape, but Mixmaster quickly apprehended him by the wings and began to drag him towards Maxima's House where there was a small lab in the basement so they could at least get started.

While the two lab partners struggled with each other, Megatron walked back over to Soundwave.

"So what did you have in mind on how to get to that ship?" 

"Follow……."

********************************************

What did you want to talk to me about Blitz?" Astrotrain asked as the two entered Blitzwing's room. "Unfortunately, due to recent events the high command has shortened my leave here. So if there's something you want to say, best do it pretty soon."

Blitzwing sighed and turned to his friend. "Megatron's now the captain of the War Ball team."

"What?! I thought for sure the team would pick you!"

"Well I pulled some stupid slag and was out of the picture for awhile. I guess after losin' both you and me the team panicked and rallied around Megs." Blitzwing sat down on his recharge bed.

"You gonna do something about it?" Astrotrain folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorway.

"I don't know, should I?" Blitzwing looked up at his friend with questioning optics.

"I wouldn't. No sense rocking the shuttle so close to the destination point." Astrotrain tilted his head slightly looking up at the ceiling.

"Yeah, I suppose as long as we win, I don't care who leads. As long as we win………"

********************************************

"Are you sure about this Soundwave?" Megatron looked around the corner of a building. There were campus authorities surrounding a huge crater. In the middle of it was the strangest looking space pod Megatron had ever seen.

"Affirmative. I must know!"

"Why? What's so important that you would risk expulsion?!"

"Because it's killing me." Soundwave's optic was wide and bright.

"Killing you?" Megatron was unnerved to say the least. He'd never seen Soundwave so much as turn a circuit, much less totally tweaked, save for that one time with Blitzwing, but even then Soundwave did not look nearly as distressed as he did now. "All right, all right. What do you want me to do?"

"Throw me as close to ship as you can."

"Right!" Megatron nodded as Soundwave transformed into his cassette deck mode and landed in Megatron's hand.

Megatron narrowed his optics at the crater. His attention was detracted for a moment when he saw the Headmaster walk up and begin to talk with two of the Authorities.

Megatron took aim and nimbly tossed Soundwave into the crater.

"Did you hear something?" Megatron heard the Headmaster say. 

The two Campus Authorities looked at each other and shook their heads.

To Megatron's horror the Headmaster walked past the two authorities and toward the crater. Without thinking, he ran out of his hiding place and called out, "Headmaster!"

The Headmaster and all of the Campus Authorities present turned to Megatron. 

"You shouldn't be here." The Headmaster looked at Megatron coldly.

"I-I-I know I shouldn't, but I…."

'Come on! Think of something!' Megatron yelled at himself.

"I-I just wanted to know, if this event is going to stop the War Ball team from going to the Championship Tournament. Being the Captain and all, the team wouldn't calm down until I found out." 

The Headmaster narrowed his optics at Megatron for a moment then smiled. "No. The best way to show no fear is to go on as nothing has happened. The War Ball Team will go to the tournament no matter what."

Megatron almost let out a sigh of relief that he had found a plausible excuse and that they were going to the Championship Tournament after all.

Soundwave transformed back into robot mode as silently as he could, and soundlessly slipped into the pod. He was grateful Megatron for distracting the Headmaster. Of all the people standing guard only the Headmaster had the sharpness to detect him.

Soundwave's mind was detracted from his thoughts when his optics fell on what looked like a recharge bed at the other end to the space pod. Soundwave crept cautiously nearer. Upon closer observation, he found that it was not a recharge bed, but a cryogenic stasis chamber and there was something inside it. Soundwave slowly reached out a hand to open the chamber.

_Sharp teeth..._

_Five faces..._

Soundwave blinked and felt an involuntary shudder run through his body. His hand pulled back slightly. He thought about turning back, but no. He'd come to far, he was so close. Ever since the day at the museum when he and Shockwave had touched the ancient door, fell into a sudden stasis lock, and shared the same vision, he started having dreams during his recharge, things, horrible things, things that seemed so familiar, yet so foreign, and beyond his reach.

_Sharp teeth..._

_Five faces..._

He had to find out what it was, what the terrible dreams meant. He reached out his hands and lifted the glass covering. His optic band brightened as what was inside was revealed. 

It was Quintesson judge.

_Five faces..._

Soundwave felt his fuel pump quicken its pace. He reached down and with a shaky hand he touched the forehead of the judge's current face. Soundwave shut off his optics and audios, so it was just him and his mind. There was darkness.

Then...

_Has the Imperial Magistrate reached a verdict...?_

Soundwave whirled around. He was no longer in the Quintesson space pod, he was no longer in the quiet darkness of his mind. He was in the Quintesson court.

_I have..._

Soundwave looked up. He was standing on the stairs leading up to the judge's pedestal. 

_Guilty or innocent...?_

Soundwave looked down the steps and saw the condemmed. His optics widened in horror.

He saw himself...

He was standing on the overhang above a pool. In the pool were creatures, monstrous creatures with sharp teeth, their jaws opening wide, waiting impatiently for the verdict.

_Innocent..._

Falling. That was the next sensation Soundwave felt.

_Then let the spawn of Gamma Trion be terminated. Let the spawn of Gamma Trion be chewed into a thousand pieces and spewed out into oblivion…_

Gamma Trion?__

Suddenly he became aware he was not_ falling alone._

Shockwave.

Falling.

He looked down at his impending doom.

_Sharp teeth..._

Falling.

_Spawn of Gamma Trion...._

He looked up at the judge.

_Five faces..._

Falling.

Then blackness, everything turned black, the sky, the judge, the pool. Everything. 

Except him and Shockwave.

Falling.

Soundwave reached up toward the black sky. Reaching for a savior that he logically knew there was no chance of coming.

Falling.

_Spawn of Gamma Trion...._

Then there was light. Not just a faint gleam, but a real true light breaking through the black. then the light took shape. The form flew toward them. It took Soundwave's outstretched hand, and Shockwave's too.

Stopped.

Soundwave's optics cleared his savior wasn't just light anymore. It was and actual figure

It had wings, hands, a body.

and..

A smile. 

Its face was shadowed, but he could still see it smiling down at him...

Soundwave blinked. He brought his audio and visual sensors back online.

He was back in the Quintesson space pod. He quickly pulled his hand away from the five faced judge. His entire body was shaking uncontrollably, his mind was just as jumbled.

What was happening? Why were these visions so clear? How was Shockwave a part of this? Who was the savior born from light? 

_Gamma Trion..._

Soundwave shook his head to clear it. He heard voices, real voices. The forensics must have arrived. Soundwave knew he was trapped, he had only one option. Soundwave quickly transformed into his cassette deck mode, hoping know one would notice him and at the right moment, he could slip out.

"Does it live, the Quintesson?"

Soundwave felt a shudder when he recognized one of the voices belonged to the Headmaster.

"Yes sir, barely."

"Good let's keep it that way, and I want you and your team to hack what's left of the pod's hard drives and flight records. I want to know why he's here!" Soundwave heard the Headmaster command.

"It will be done as you ask sir."

"Good, I must get back to office and explain this to Lord Straxus as best I can. Inform me of the situation here every hour."

Soundwave felt relief for moment that the Headmaster was leaving, until he heard footsteps walking toward him. He was picked and carried away...

*******************************

The Headmaster sighed as he entered and gently set the blue cassette deck down on the floor in front of his desk.

"Transform Soundwave." The Headmaster said calmly as he took a seat behind his desk.

Soundwave slowly transformed back into robot mode and stood in front of the Headmaster's desk with his head bowed in silent submission. 

'How did the Headmaster know it was I?' Soundwave thought frantically, but his thoughts were startled when he realized he was no the only one reading them.

"How do I know? The Decepticon insignia told me you were not part of the Quintesson space pod," Heavens War began."Also there are very few cassette hosts at the Decepticon War Academy, and none of them have your color scheme."

A telepath. 

The Headmaster was a telepath. Soundwave berated himself for not recognizing it before. 

"Why were you in the Quintesson space pod?"

"I have been receiving Quintesson transmissions during recharge, I wanted to find out if this crash was connected to it sir?" Soundwave lied, and he knew the Headmaster knew it to.

He could feel the Headmaster working on him, trying to get back into his memory bank, looking for the truth. Soundwave noticed, with a combination of shock, anger and fascination, how smooth the Headmaster's mental intrusions were. Meaning he could read someone's mind and they wouldn't even know it unless they were a fellow telepath trying to block him, which Soundwave was.

"Are you sure there is nothing you want to tell me?"

"Negative. There is nothing I _want to tell you sir."_

"The reason I ask this is I may be able to help." The Headmaster continued with his calm tone.

'He knows something!' Soundwave shuddered, 'But how? I detected negative infiltration success.'

"Are you positive?"

"Affirmative."

The Headmaster opened his mouth to say something more when a small, red and black, winged creature flew into the office and perched it's self on the Headmaster's arm.

"Welcome Laserbeak, what have you brought me?" The Headmaster smiled at the Cybertronian bird.

The bird squawked and the Headmaster nodded in recognition of what it "said".

Soundwave's optics widened slightly, the bird sounded so familiar. Soundwave reached and reached far back into his memory banks as he could, but he could not get to it. There was a wall, a wall standing between him and the truth. Only the sounds, the sounds leaked out through the barrier. The sounds of a robotic bird.

"Soundwave. I have to go to the laboratories in a few minutes, so we must cut this meeting short. since you have made no past infractions, I will let you off with a warning." The Headmaster's voice was now cold and serious.

"Affirmative." Soundwave bowed his head again, then made his way to the door. 

"Wait!" Soundwave turned back to the Headmaster.

"Take her with you," the Headmaster said as Laserbeak flew from his arm to Soundwave's. "Just in case. You may go."

With another nod, Soundwave exited the Headmaster's office. 

*************************

"Octane, I never thought I would be so happy to see you and your maggot-gagging energon." Starscream smirked at the aforementioned Triple-Changer. 

"Well when I heard the great taste tester Mixmaster was here I couldn't stay away." Octane smirked back.

"Yeah? Well I think your slag was too much for him." Megtron peered over the lab table at the currently unconcious Constructicon Chemist.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about it," Scrapper came down the basement stairs, followed by Shockwave. "You should see some of the garbage he's tested on himself."

"Megatron, has there been any sign of Soundwave? A conversation with him is of the utmost importance." Shockwave demanded, his voice sounding unusually fiery.

"No I haven't seen him, what's so important?"

"None of your business!" Shockwave hissed and stomped up the basement stairs.

There was a brief period of silence in wonderment. Shockwave had a temper, despite his cold calculating demeanor, though they were few, there were times when he let hints of emotion slip past his vocaliser. However, something was different, he never slipped when he was around anyone besides his fellow Housemates, and Octane counted as a non-house member. Something had to really be disturbing him, but what that something was beyond anyone's guess.

Mixmaster groaned and pulled himself up half way onto the lab table and coughed.

"You up for another round?" Octane smirked.

"fshingufjdiujaehlfhdfl." Mixmaster mumbled into the table.

"I'll take that as a yes." Octane lifted up Mixmaster's head and placed the glass of energon into his hand.

Mixmaster put the energon to his lips and gulped it down. He stood silently for a moment, then his shoulders hunched and choking sounds came from his throat.

The others were not quite sure what to do, but Scrapper merely shook his head and calmly walked around behind the choking chemist. Suddenly, Scrapper raised up his hand and gave Mixmaster a sharp slap on the back, with that came a huge belch and a torrent of fire that nearly singed Starscream and Octane, and forced Megatron to make a dive for the floor.

"Mmmm. Ni-Nice and Ze-Zes-Zesty?" Mixmaster smiled and hiccupped a little puff of smoke, then proceeded to fall backward on to the floor.

"Megatron, would you help me get him somewhere, where he can recover until he can walk?" Scrapper sighed, picking up his unconscious bother.

"Sure, right this way," Megatron made his way up the stairs.

Megatron was surprised to find he almost ran into Soundwave when he reached the top of the stairs. "Where have you been?"

"The Headmaster called me into his office."

"Wha---"

"Do not fear," Soundwave said as he turned down the Hallway to his room. "You were never mentioned."

"Oh, well good. Who's your new pet?" Megatron gestured to the Cybertronian bird sitting on Soundwave's shoulder.

"Laserbeak. She is from the Headmaster. Just in case."

"Just in case of what?" Megatron raised and optic brow.

"Unkown, but I could not refuse something from the Headmaster."

"No, you couldn't. Well that's neither here nor there. Are you still allowed to go to the Championship Tournament in 48 hrs."

"Affirmative. He did not forbid me." Soundwave pressed the button and opened the door to his room. "It will be good to get away."

With that Soundwave entered the room and closed the door behind him, leaving a very perplexed Megatron and Scrapper.

*************************************************

Heavens War sighed, "Soundwave's a lot harder to crack than I thought. Good, he should be, I should have expected nothing less. On the other hand, maybe I should have pushed forward and found out what was plaguing him. Then again perhaps infiltrating Soundwave's mind might unlock the memories that he may not be ready for."

Heavens War sighed again, and leaned back into his chair, staring up at the ceiling. "We shall see....."

 __

_*********************************************************_

_I am so sorry for the long wait, but a number of things came up that prevented me from finishing this chapter until now._

_1. College_

_2. Many difficult, horrible, exams._

_3. Aviator_

_4. I wanted to make sure all of the points in my story connected._

_Don't worry the next chapter should be up pretty soon. Things seem to be calming down, I hope._

_Who is Gamma Trion? Well that's something you are going to have to wait and see. In later chapters I will dive into transformers history. Because there are so many different versions of transformers history, I'm going to combine some of the theories already out there with some of my own. Please don't be angry or try to correct me if I get something wrong, unless it is something extremely important._

_Thank you my loyal fans for sticking with me for so long. And don't forget as always, to send me your reviews and opinions._

_Till next time. Thanks for waiting._

_-Vega Sailor ^_^ _


	19. Animal Talk

When We Were Young

Chapter 19 - Animal Talk

"It's good to see you Ravage, it has been such a long time." Quoth the Cybertronian condor.

"Indeed, too long Laserbeak." The Panzer answered.

Laserbeak looked over at the deeply recharging Soundwave.

"I missed him so much, it has only been a few years, but it feels like an eternity." Laserbeak's optics dimmed slightly. "To be away from the mental connection for so long. My mind feels so empty. Even though I know why he gave me to Heavens War, and to see look at him and he doesn't know me, I just feel left out."

"It's not that he doesn't want to know you, it's just he's not allowed to remember. You know that. Don't worry one day, when the time is right, he will know you again." Ravage put a paw on Laserbeak's wing.

The condor nodded.

"How has he been doing since I've been gone?" Laserbeak looked at Ravage.

"He was very dreary at first, nobody seemed to like him." Ravage's head drooped slightly.

"What? Why?! How could anyone not like him? Sure he's not as lively as some people, but that's what's so good, he's quiet and calm." Laserbeak's eyes filled with sorrow and concern.

"I know, I think that the talents you and I value most in him, has given him the name of a blackmailer amongst the others."

"Oh, no." Laserbeak shut her optics.

Ravage raised his head and Laserbeak was surprised to feel him smiling. "However, I have not finished my story. All of this happened until he met the Megatron."

"The Megatron?"

"Yes, the Megatron defended Soundwave against the Blitzwing, when the Blitzwing falsely accused Soundwave, and the Megatron helped Soundwave get to the ship. It was at the ship Soundwave saw the memory."

Laserbeak's optics brightened slightly as Ravage continued.

"After Soundwave was under the Megatron's protection, no one has touched him since." 

"That's a relief. What did Soundwave see?"

"A memory. The one from the Quintesson Court." the excitement in Ravage's voice grew.

"He remembers that?!" Laserbeak's optics widened in surprise.

"Yes."

"It won't be long, will it?"

"No, it won't be long."

Suddenly the door at the other end of the room opened. Soundwave's optics came online and he slowly sat up and unplugged himself from the recharge bed. 

"Shockwave?"

The aforementioned cyclops just stood there in the doorway. Shoulders hunched and tense, fist clenched and the one optic glowing brightly.

"How dare you..." Shockwave's voice was just barely above a whisper, but it was a dangerous hiss...

******************************************

_Yes, I know this is very short, but this chapter has some important stuff in it and I'm entering finals week so this is all I can manage. But don't worry, the next chapter is already in the works._

_In the next episode of When We Were Young._

_The time for the War Ball Championship Tournament has come._

_Till Next Time._

_-Vega Sailor___


	20. The Logic of Dreams

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story, except for Heavens War. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.

When We Were Young

Chapter 20 - The Logic of Dreams

"How dare you..." Shockwave's voice was just barely above a whisper, but it was a dangerous hiss.

Soundwave narrowed his optics and stood.

Without another word Shockwave stormed up to Soundwave, grabbed him by the through and thrust him up against nearest wall.

"I am Shockwave! I do not dream! How dare you put such illogic in my head!" Shockwave screamed.

Out of the corner of his visor Soundwave saw Ravage ready to pounce, but sent a signal to wait.

"Explanation requested." Soundwave managed to croak out of his vocaliser that was slowly being crushed.

"I was in the court of the Quintessons, even though I have never seen a Quintesson court before. It's illogical! Then I saw you with me! And logic dictates with your capabilities you could broadcast those things into my head!" Shockwave's one eye was glowing frighteningly bright, as he screamed out the words into Soundwave's audios.

"You see the dreams?" The confusion was plain in Soundwave's voice.

"I do not dream! Why are you doing this?!"

"I am not. There is no logic to why I would, is there?" Soundwave's voice calmly answered.

Shockwave's grip eased slightly at this, Soundwave had brought up a very good point. "Even still, logic also dictates that you are the only one I know of who has that capability."

"I do not!"

"But---"

"Your mental barriers are too strong, I do not have capability to get through." Soundwave's voice was still calm. "Nor would I wish these dreams on some one who has not been my enemy. And why would I put myself in the dream as one of condemned? Do you not remember the door?"

There was just a tense silence, with Ravage's growl the only thing breaking the silence. Then Shockwave slowly released his grip on Soundwave's throat.

"Yes, yes I do. I will accept that for now and believe your words for now, merely because I lack another logical explanation, but...." 

"Um, ex-ex-excuse m-me."

Shockwave and Soundwave turned to see, a very confused and very hungover looking Mixmaster, standing in the doorway.

"C-c-co-could yo-you te-tell me wh-wh-wh-where I-I-I c-can f-f-find Scrapper, and-and wh-where I-I-I am?" The name of his leader seemed to be the only thing Mixmaster could enunciate properly.

Both Shockwave and Soundwave twitched slightly in irritation at this, but Mixmaster didn't seem to notice. 

"You are in the House of Maxima, and I will lead you to your quarters, for logic dictates that is the place you should be in your drunken stupor." Shockwave stepped toward the cratered Constructicon.

"Ye-yeah, all-all right." Mixmaster said as Shockwave walked up to him.

However, before departing Shockwave turned back to Soundwave. " Soundwave, I will discuss with you further about this when you return from the War Ball Tournament."

"Wh-wh-what were-were y-you two go-go-goin' on about?" Mixmaster asked as Shockwave guided him down the Hallway.

"It is not your place to ask questions." Shockwave snapped.

"Sn-snappy old bu-bugger, are-aren't y-you?"

"Silence inferior one!"

"J-J-Jerk!"

Meanwhile, Soundwave lay back down on his recharge bed and stared up at the ceiling.

'Shockwave has seen the dreams too? But Shockwave does not dream. Perhaps it is something else, like......'

Then it hit Soundwave like a ton of energon cubes.

'.......a memory.'

That possibility had always been nagging at the back of Soundwave's mind, but it had never been accepted to be reasonable until just now.

' I cannot think on this now. Must concentrate on the Championship. I will think about this later....'

_Sharp teeth...._

_Five faces....._

_ ************************************_

_Yay! Another chapter! Like the one before this one is short, but important. _

_Why is Shockwave seeing the same things as Soundwave? Hmmmm.....Not telling._

_ Not yet anyway._

_Okay, I know I said in the last chapter the kids would be leaving for the Tournament. Originally this scene would have been at the beginning of that, but I decided to give this its own Chapter._

_Till next time._

_-Vega Sailor_


	21. Off to the Game

When We Were Young  
  
Chapter 20 - Off to the Championship  
  
Excitement was in the air, so thick you could almost taste it. The War Ball team was taking off for Metalluna, a small city in the last bastion of neutral territory on Cybertron, whose sole purpose it was to provide a safe place to host the Heavy Metal War Ball Championship Tournament.  
  
During tournament week there were no classes or homework at the Decepticon War Academy. There were parties, painted banners, and music in the streets. It was quite a festival and it had only just begun.  
  
However, the War Ball team itself had some definate problems worth being at least concerned about. Thundercracker had still not been released from the Medbay and nobody was sure how Soundwave would be able to handle a real game as goalkeeper. On top of that, Skywarp's focus on the game was shaky at best, and Starscream, though he was excellent during practice, had zero game experience as well. However, Megatron seemed confident and his confidence seemed to radiate to the others and provide a subtle, silent morale booster.  
  
***********************  
  
The team waited impatiently in the Headmaster's office, for the Headmaster to come back and inform them that their transport had arrived. They couldn't wait outside for they would soon be swamped by their fellow students, the femme students in particular.  
  
"Man, this is boring. When's the Headmaster gonna get back?" Ramjet whined, slumping in his chair.  
  
"How should we know?" Thrust snapped back.  
  
"Don't worry boys," Megatron calmly entered in his voice, when he saw Ramjet look as if he would run over and wring Thrust's neck. "We have to get there by the time the opening ceremonies start. So we'll have to leave within the hour, or there abouts."  
  
That seemed to satisfy Ramjet, as he slumped gruffly back down in his chair. Megatron looked over at Starscream who seemed unusually quiet considering what a big event the day was.  
  
"You ok?" Megatron's calm question startled Starscream out of his trance of gazing out the window.  
  
"Uh? oh, yeah. It just sucks crude that the one person I've look up to for so long, doesn't approve of the goal I've had my spark set on ever since I came here." Starscream crossed his arms on the window ledge and lay his head on them.  
  
"Skyfire?"  
  
"Yes." Starscream gaze fell on the Combaticons throwing paint at each other, rather than puting it on the banner they were supposed to be making, in the street below. Starscream almost let out a chuckle, when in an attempt to get his team to stop, Onsluaght got covered with a namesake amount of paint from the other four.  
  
"What really matters is what you want, Starscream." Megatron spoke again, this time the seeker looked at him.  
  
"Yeah, but sometimes it's hard to know what I want." Starscream sighed.  
  
The conversation abruptly stopped as Blitzwing walked over to the window, looked out, and laughed.  
  
"Ha,ha. Brawl's pink! Blast! Where's Reflector when we need him?" Blitzwing was almost on the floor laughing.  
  
All of the other team members, with the exception of Soundwave, rushed over to the window. Seeing Brawl with a pink paint job was something they could not bear to miss.  
  
Blitzwing opened the window and yelled. "Lookin' pretty Brawl!"  
  
"Fvker! I'll kill him!" Brawl attempted to fly up to strangle Blitzwing, but a now colorfully painted Onslaught held him back.  
  
"Fool! We can't cause any trouble than we already have, and attacking a War Ball team member on the day they leave for the championship, particularly after the Thundercracker incident, counts as big trouble! Now knock it off or we'll get kicked out!" Onslaught hissed.  
  
Brawl growled as he gave up his plan of attack on Blitzwing, which was soon forgotten when he was hit in the head by a blob of yellow paint thrown by Vortex.  
  
The War Ball team watched with great amusement as four of the members of the Bruticus gestalt proceeded to get into an all out paint throwing street fight, while poor Onslaught looked as if he was about to have a nervous breakdown.  
  
Unfortunately for the Combaticons, the War Ball team and the the growing crowd of student spectators, the infamous freelance peackeeping agent caretaker of the Aerial House, or known by his common name Death's Head, pushed his way through the crowd and threatened to shoot, maime and/or paralyze any Combaticon who dared even flick a drop of paint in his direction, or any other for that matter.  
  
The War Ball team's enjoyment was futher interrupted when the office door opened and the Headmaster stepped inside.  
  
"Well I'm glad to find you so merry my boys," The Headmaster smirked as the team quickly dashed from the window back to where they sitting before the paintball fight.  
  
"Your transportation is ready. However due tothe recent events, I can not join you as tradition speaks, but you still need a chaperone, so one of the other professors has volunteered take you and look after you. Follow me."  
  
The War Ball team filed out of the office quite excited to say the least. It was finally time.  
  
"Uh Headmaster?" Blitzwing spoke up. "It's not Airstrike that's taken us, is it?"  
  
"No Blitzwing it is not Airstrike." Headmaster almost chuckled at the relief that came over Blitzwing's face, but kept his face straight.  
  
"Then who? Dreadmoon?" Skywarp offered up.  
  
"Couldn't be, he said it was a professor." Starscream pointed out, then he stopped dead his tracks. The others turned around to look at him.  
  
"It's Skyfire." Starscream said in almost a whisper.  
  
"Starscream has won the guessing game, now come along." The Headmaster motioned, and the team followed.  
  
"But why?" Starscream half whispered to himself and to Megatron who was walking next to him. "I thought he didn't like War Ball."  
  
"Maybe it's not for War Ball." Megatron pointed out.  
  
Starscream looked at him quizzically then looked back down at the floor as realization what Megatron was implying sunk in.  
  
When the War Ball team walked out of the administratvie building, they were nearly drowned when their fellow classmates swarmed them with cheers and signs, and requests for autographs.  
  
Fortunately, Skyfire was transformed and ready and waiting for them, so they managed to get out of the crowd in one piece.  
  
************************************************  
  
(Avoids sharp objects being tossed by audience members)  
  
Sorry for the long wait I wanted to finish "Aviator" before I continued and college has been evil to me. I'm completely shell shocked from how much work there is, it's draining all of my brain's energy, but I promise I'll do my best to get these chapters written up quicker.  
  
Thank you for your patience.  
  
Till Next Time. -Vega Sailor 


	22. Opponents

_Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me. _

**When We Were Young  
****Chapter 22: Opponents Meet**

"Ha! Victory!" Blitzwing sang as they exited the stadium and headed back toward the hotel.

"Again!" Dirge added.

"We, crushed those Nebulans like rusted metal!" Ramjet punched a fist into his other hand.

"Only one obstacle remains." Soundwave spoke. "Autobots."

"Yeah," everyone sneered

"All right kids, let's get back to the hotel and check up on Thundercracker and Skywarp." Skyfire ushered the the young transformers out of the locker room under the stadium.

"Hey, Soundie! How 'bout some victory music?" Blitzwing gave Soundwave a punctuating clap on the back.

Soundwave nodded and pressed the "Play" button on his abdomen. The sound that resonated was a heavy, loud, but energetic song that Soundwave had recorded Blitzwings' voice for two days before they left for the tournament. Needless to say it quickly became Blitzwings' favorite song.

Starscream lingered for a few seconds watching the others exit the locker room before turning to Skyfire who was smiling at him. Starscream frowned back.

"Why are you here?" Starscream's voice was almost a hiss. "What wasn't it you who lectured me about how barbaric this game was and that how anyone who joined it was no better than a savage! Did you come here to mock me?"

"No." Skyfire looked distressed. "After our 'talk' I thought about things, and it wasn't right of me to smash you down when you were so happy. I should have been more supportive of my friend. "

The two stood in silence for a moment. Skyfire was no longer smiling, but Starscream was no longer frowning.

"You were brilliant out there." Skyfire offered quietly. " I must admit, after watching you, the game takes more thought than I gave it credit for. Even though I've refreed some of the games, I have never actually watched them or study them for any kind of enjoyment, I was always looking for someone making a mistake."

Starscream chuckled then smiled a proud smile. "Yes I was pretty good wasn't I? Skywarp better watch his step."

Skyfire smiled back. "Yes he should. Come on let's catch up to the others before they do something destructive in my absence."

"Heh."

When Starscream and Skyfire caught up to the other Decepticons they were already on the main communicator in the room in which they were staying, however they seemed to be having trouble keeping the reception. The screen would go clear for a second, but then become fuzzy.

"Blast this outdated equipment." Shockwave spat. At least the audio com was working.

"I think it's us." Megatron growled.

Soundwave stood up apparently finished with what he was doing with the cords, then calmly punched a few buttons and the screen became as clear as crystal.

"Good work Soundwave." Megatron smirked. "Shockwave report."

"Yes. Thundercracker and Skywarp have reached full recovery, they are on their way to your position now, and should arrive within the hour." Shockwave announced.

"Excellent." Megatron said while the other players cheered in the background, with the exception of Starscream who looked as if someone had died.

"I hope you don't mind Thundercracker taking over from here Soundwave." Megatron said casually.

"Negative. Thundercracker is better built for the keeper position." Soundwave stated calmly.

"Right. Hey Starscream -- " Megatron turned to address the red seeker, but caught only a pair of wings disappearing through the door to the next room.

Megatron glanced briefly at Skyfire who was shaking his head disdainfully.

"Blast, I should have foreseen this." Megatron hissed quietly to Soundwave so that the others couldn't hear, but Soundwave could which was not hard to do considering Soundwave's sharp hearing and how loud the others were talking.

"Don't distract yourself his emotions. He must deal with what he has been dealt." There was an iciness to Soundwave's monotone voice that caught Megatron a little off guard.

"Megatron," Shockwave spoke again. "One more thing, the Headmaster himself is transporting Skywarp and Thundercracker to you."

"Really? I guess the Quintesson matter has been cleared up." Megatron said more to himself than to Shockwave.

"All right! The Headmaster's comin'!" Blitzwing cheered. The Headmaster was the only transformer besides Astrotrain that Blitzwing truly respected.

"Well let's start over to the docking bay shall we?" Dirge smirked.

"Hey Screamer, where are you? We're heading over to wait for 'Cracker and 'Warp." Thrust called out a little louder than necessary.

"I'm...I'm...in the cleansing chamber," Starscream's voice came from the other room. "I'll...I'll meet you there."

"Suit yourself!"Blitzwing called, "Let's go guys!"

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With leaden steps Starscream made his way to the docking bay. The reason for his slow progress was not because he did not want to see Skywarp and Thundercracker, but because with Skywarp and Thundercracker back – particularly Skywarp - Starscream was going to be out of his forward position, and Skywarp would be back in.

For moment a thought of Skywarp having an accident before the game, getting injured so he could not play, and then Starscream could have his position back for the big game against the Autobots.

_Starscream don't think that, Skywarp is your best friend, does that position mean so much to you that you would sacrifice him for it?_ Starscream berated himself mentally.

_No, and yes. I want that position so bad, I want a place of fame and adoration. I'm just as good as Skywarp, even better. I'm a lot smarter than he is. I **deserve** a place fame and adoration. _

_Stop it! Stop it! Skywarp is your friend!_

"Hey Screamer!"

Startscream shook the previous thoughts to the back of his mind as the aforementioned back and purple seeker jogged up to him, followed by the rest of the War Ball Team.

"Hey 'Warp." Starscream plastered a smile of his face. "How are the wings Thundercracker?"

"Back on my back, where they should be." the blue seeker chuckled.

"Well Skyfire, I think I can take it from here." The Headmaster addressed the white transformer.

"Yes, good luck boys." Skyfire said to the group, but was looking straight at Starscream. Then without another word he turned and left.

"So Headmaster, has the event with the Quintesson been cleared up?" Megatron asked carefully.

"We've got him in suspended animation until I return. It was decided that I should at least be present for the Decepticon/Autobot match." The Headmaster smirked.

Megatron returned the smirk, and went to join up with the other team members who were talking and laughing just ahead.

Heaven's War stood still for a moment, just gazing at the young Decepticons before him.

_I hope they are in such good spirits by this time tomorrow. _

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Skywarp was brought out of recharge, by someone shaking his shoulder.

"Uh...go away..." Skywarp grumbled and turned over.

However, his tormentor would not be driven off so easily. Thi8s time he was jolted out of recharge by someone pulling out one of the recharge bed plugs attached to his back.

"That's it I'm gonna---" Skywarp was cut off when a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Quiet! You'll wake the headmaster." The voice belonged to Thundercracker.

"What's up?" Skywarp whispered when his mouth was finally free to talk.

"Megatron wants to get in some last minute practice. Come on."

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"Excellent we got the stadium to ourselves." Blitzwing crowed.

"Never did this with Astrotrain did you guys?" Megatron smirked. "Whenever I was in a different stadium as a gladiator, Proximo would get me into the stadium when it was empty before a big match, so I could walk around and get acquainted with the environment."

"What's it like being a gladiator?" Blitzwing asked.

"Well, when you get past your life being on the line every cycle, it has some good points." Megatron answered staring thoughtfully at the empty seats of the stadium.

"Like what, specifically?" Starscream asked.

"Just imagine several thousand spectators watching every movement of your sword, willing you to make that killer blow. The silence before you strike and the noise afterwards rises and rises up like a storm as if you were Primus himself."

Megatron smiled inwardly as the others stared at him with wide, captivated optics.

"Bet you took your opponents down in 30 seconds flat." Starscream said eagerly.

"I wasn't the best because I killed quickly, I was the best because the crowd loved me." Megatron looked down at the ground and chuckled. "I tell you there were a good many Autobots at my matches, that's why we'll win, the Autobots want the same power we do, but are too weak to get it."

"Yeah, we'll beat the scrap out of them." Ramjet raised a fist.

"Oh Primus, I don't believe it." Thrust spat. Sure enough over at the other of end of the field was the Autobot War Ball team.

" Look who's here." Megatron smirked, as the Autobots approached them

"We want no trouble Megatron, we'll stick to one side of the field and you can stick yours." the captain of the team, Optimus Prime stepped forward.

"Afraid I can't agree to that Prime, you see we want the whole field and its first come first serve and we were here first." Megatron stated calmly.

"What is with you Decepticons and not compromising?" the Autobot forward Jazz.

"Because compromising means you're settling for less. So why have only a part when you could have it all?" Blitzwing sneered.

"Decepticons superior; Autobots inferior." Soundwave spoke putting his two cents in.

"Yeah what he said." Ramjet added.

Megatron smiled as he saw the angry looks cross the usually cheerful Autobots. He noticed the twins Skywarp and Thundercracker staring murderously at the Autobot twins Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, who stared right back just as lethal.

"Well if it's a fight ya' want we'll be glad ta' give it." The big red bot Ironhide growled taking a challenging step forward.

"Ease up Ironhide. That might be just what they want, to get us into trouble." Prime held up a hand.

"Really Prime, you read too much into things, all we want is the field. Our goalkeeper wants some extra practice and so we're going to give it to him. He's been out for a little while you see." Megatron motioned to Thundercracker, who drew himself up proudly.

"What happened? your poor little wings get broken?" Sideswipe said in mock concern, while Sunstreaker laughed.

"Why you little---" Skywarp tried to lunge at Sidswipe, but Thundercracker grabbed his wings to hold him back.

"At least I'm not a two-faced bully with a hideous paint job!" Thundercracker spat back at the Autobot twins.

That was the last circuit.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe tackled Thundercracker and Skywarp, and the two lambroginis and the two jets were rolling around on the ground trying to get the upper hand on each other and cursing.

"Sideswipe! Sunstreaker! Stop!" Prime called out.

"Sabotage!" Megatron yelled and pointed an accusing finger at Optimus. "Decepticons defend yourselves! Attack!"

For the next five minutes the Autobots and Decepticons had gotten themselves into an all out brawl. Everyone seemed to take one their opposite from the other team.

Starscream dodged a punch from the Autobot named Jazz, shifted his balance and kicked upward nailing Jazz in the jaw. The red jet found to his own surprise he quite enjoyed combat. There was a strange pleasure in overpowering someone else.

Optimus Prime managed to throw off Megatron enough to speak.

"Call off your team Megatron! There is no reason we should be fighting like this."

"Tell me, why did they replace Orion Pax with such a peace lover like you. At least Pax had some fight in him." Megatron sneered.

"It's this 'fight' that lead him to his fate. We both know what happened to Orion. The night someone he admired stabbed him in the back and nearly killed him." Optimus shouted back.

"Nearly? And just how do you know this?" Megatron frowned.

" Because I am Orion Pax!"

For a moment genuine shock crossed Megatron's face, but the moment was broken when Prime tackled him.

"ENOUGH!" A booming voice echoed around the stadium causing all of the students to freeze

Alpha Trion, the Headmaster of the Autobot Academy of Science and Knowledge, jumped down from his high place in the stands and landed gracefully on the field.

"Autobots! To me!" He shouted.

The Autobot students quickly abandoned their Decepticon opponents, and ran to their superior.

"I suggest you head back to your current residence before you get yourselves into more trouble," Alpha Trion scolded the young Decepticons.

"As I seem to recall it was your group of students that threw the first punch, Trion" Heavens War came up behind his students.

"Heavens War, " Alpha Trion's voice softened. "it's been too long."

"Only since the last tournament." Heavens War said flatly.

"Even still all of those times, we have never spoken."

"There is nothing more I can say to you that has not already been said." Heavens War's tone was still calm, but it sounded tight and restrained.

"Why must things continue on like this?" Alpha Trion suddenly sounded trion.

"Until one side admits he was wrong." Heavens War answered simply.

There was and uneasy moment of silence in which the students glanced back and forth between their headmasters and each other. I didn't take a smart person to guess only half the conversation was being said.

Soundwave read the radiations from the headmaster with some shock. He had never seen the Headmaster this angry before. No not just anger, the Headamaster radiated utter hat and loathing towards the Autobot Alpha. The only thing externally that indicated the hate that the headmaster felt from his calm stance were his fists clenched so tightly that his fingers might bore into his hand.

"A new captain for your team, I see." Heavens War, said looking coldly at Optimus Prime.

"Yes, this is Optimus Prime." Alph Trion said proudly.

"Orion Pax, you mean." Megatron spat, arms crossed over his chest.

All optics shifted from Megatron to Optimus Prime.

"Yes, I was Orion Pax, and I suppose in some ways I still am. Not too long ago Orion met up with a dangerous person, a person Orion didn't know just how dangerous he was until it was too late. The person for whatever reason tried to kill Orion, fortunately his friedns found him and took him to Alpha Trion before he ceased functioning." Optimus never took his optics away from Megatron the whole time he spoke. "I changed my name in the hope that whoever wanted me dead would not come after me again."

Another moment of intense silence followed. Then once again Heavens War broke it.

"And interesting design you chose for his new form. Wherever did you get the inspiration?" Heavens War spat out the words through clenched teeth an accused an surprisingly betrayed look in his visor.

"From one the greatest designers of them all." Alpha Trion said softly.

The Decepticon Headmaster looked slightly taken aback. Apparently that was not answer he had expected.

Alpha Trion then turned to his other Autobots. "Come boys, let us get some rest, you have a big game ahead of you."

The other Autobots nodded and followed their headmaster toward the stadium exit, each of them casting last minute death glares at the group of Decepticons, who returned them with equal zeal.

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_Greetings,_

_Long time no see. Today marks the two year anniversary of when I first started "When We Were Young."_

_I apologize for not working on it for so long. College, my job and my Harry Potter Fanfiction have kind of taken over things. I am determined to finish this story. It may take a while, but I will finish it._

_Thank you for sticking with me for so long and I can only hope that you will continue to do so._

_Till Next Time!_

_Vega Sailor_

_P.S. Would anyone be interested in being my beta reader for future chapters?_


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